Chicago Sports Exchange: Sky’s Late Crumble Amounts to First 2021 Loss
Fire Notch First Victory Since October, Red Stars Find Progress In Deadlock
Ed. note - Sox and Cubs reports return to CSE next Monday
In building a 2-0 start to begin the 2021 season, the Chicago Sky forced their opponents into a whopping 32 turnovers.
On Sunday, in an eight-point loss to New York, one of the WNBA’s two worst teams at taking care of the ball, the Sky made off with 22 more takeaways. But because their poaching was overshadowed by miscommunication and a failure to corral defensive rebounds, some of which led to backbreaking long-range strikes, head coach James Wade was left wanting even more.
More disruption. More consistency with executing the game plan, whether Candace Parker and Allie Quigley are on the court or not.
“We’re going to have to learn to deal with adversity,” Wade said after the game. “I don’t want to use the excuse that we have players out or it’s early in the season. I felt this was a game that really exposed things we have to work on. They just beat us at every turn.”
BUY — NY Needs Rain of 3s to Take Down Sky In Home Opener
So much for storybook homecomings.
Candace Parker’s cranky left ankle postponed her Wintrust Arena debut while the 1,257 fans in attendance bore witness to a historic barrage of threes from New York in the Sky’s 93-85 home-opening loss Sunday.
But it wasn’t the Liberty’s franchise-tying 14 three-pointers that the team attributed to its first defeat of the season. Not exactly anyway.
“We have to play 24 seconds of defense,” said Courtney Vandersloot who, with 16 assists, was two helpers shy of tying her single-game record. “They were able to get a couple of long rebounds for threes. We were out of position early.”
Added Diamond DeShields, who had a team-high 22 points, three rebounds, three assists, and one admirable defensive effort against wonder kid Sabrina Ionescu: “It was a lack of defense, for sure. They have good shot-makers. You can’t leave people wide open that are capable shot-makers. We were overhelping on some plays. In turn, they were able to get open threes.”
Ionescu dished out 12 assists and sank five treys herself, but scored just eight points after halftime.
The Sky’s last lead of the game, 72-70, evaporated shortly before the end of the third quarter when back-to-back triples from Rebecca Allen and Jazmine Jones gave the Liberty a four-point advantage ahead of the final frame.
For the second time in as many games Ruthy Hebard (15 points on 50% shooting from the field to go along with 10 rebounds, four blocks, one steal, and one assist) played well again in Parker’s stead.
Azurá Stevens finished with six points and five rebounds in her season debut. Shyla Heal, the eighth-overall pick from April’s draft, turned the ball over once and missed her only field-goal attempt in the first five minutes of her WNBA career.
The Sky (2-1) host Atlanta (1-2), whom they beat 85-77 May 19, Tuesday before welcoming Parker’s old running mates, the Los Angeles Sparks, to town for a two-game set Friday and Sunday. It’s unclear at what point during this five-game home stand Parker will return.
HOLD — Fire Rekindle Winning Ways
John McCarty’s mishandling of Luka Stojanović’s free kick was the break the Fire desperately needed to catch Saturday.
Until then it had been a month since, ironically, Stojanović netted the team’s last goal and seven months since the Fire had claimed victory. The gaffe that resulted in his team-best third score of the season not only helped the Fire (1-4-1) prevail 1-0 over Inter Miami. It also steered the team out of its worst season-opening skid to date.
And, in light of head coach Raphael Wicky confirming last week that assistant David Zdrilic would no longer be working with the first-team, it spun the energy around the team in a more positive direction.
“Yeah, I mean, you can probably imagine, you can also see that we're all a little bit showing a bigger smile while sitting here,” Wicky told reporters afterward. “I don't want to go too high but the way the team responded after four losses was really, really good, and I'm really, really, happy about that.”
The Fire host CF Montréal (2-3-2) Saturday.
HOLD — Red Stars Still Winless, Scoreless But View Draw As Building Block
It wasn’t a bounce back in the technical sense. But given recent circumstances, the Red Stars playing Gotham FC to a scoreless draw Saturday still constitutes a sign of life.
Mallory Pugh was particularly peppy. In both her SeatGeek Stadium debut and first 90-minute match in nearly two years, Pugh was the catalyst for the Red Stars out-shooting Gotham 13-7.
And not a moment too soon for a team that will be without defender and USWNT star Julie Ertz (knee) for at least the next month and was pummeled, 5-0, in the season opener.
Though the Red Stars (0-1-1) are still looking for their first goal and win of the season, cashing in on a point is at least progress.
“Ultimately, there were chances that I just needed to finish plain and simple. It’s definitely coming, but I don’t think it’s there yet,” said Pugh, who also spoke about the excitement of playing in front of the stadium’s first live attendance since October 2019.
The Red Stars hit the road for two matches this week, first at Kansas City (0-0-2) Wednesday then at Houston (0-1-1) Saturday.
Drew Stevens is a Senior Writer for WARR Media, he lives and works in Chicago