Too many turnovers doom Sky vs. Atlanta

Giant slayers no longer.

The Chicago Sky had a knack for beating the very best teams in the WNBA.

First it was the Seattle Storm, which is currently 9-1 and in position to tie the best start in WNBA history this week. The Storm's lone loss? To the Sky in May.

After beating the Storm at Allstate Arena, the Sky turned around and became the first Eastern Conference team to take out the Atlanta Dream, which had gotten off to its best start in franchise history at 6-1.

The outcome in Atlanta was a dream for the Sky, which not only won on the road, but won in convincing fashion, limiting the Dream's top two players - Angel McCoughtry and Erika de Souza - to just a combined 11 points, 24 points below their average.

But then the alarm clock blared at full blast. The Sky got a rude awakening Tuesday night when it became apparent that the dream in Atlanta wasn't of the recurring variety.

In fact, the Dream (9-3) was a downright nightmare for the Sky as it ran off with a 93-86 victory at Allstate Arena.

The Dream had five players in double-figures, led by a red-hot shooting Iziane Castro Marques, who scored a career- and game-high 31 points on 10-of-16 shooting, including a 4-of-6 clip from 3-point territory.

"High," said Sky guard Jia Perkins when asked what her level of frustration is right now. "We had a lot of turnovers (19), we didn't get back (on defense). It's not good. But we just have to try to bounce back."

The Sky (4-7) tried to do that in the waning moments.

Down by 8 with 48.8 seconds left, the Sky got a huge three-pointer by Cathrine Kraayeveld that cut the deficit to 88-83. The deficit shrunk even more when Perkins, who scored a team- and season-high 25 points, drained a must-hit shot from downtown with 13.8 seconds left.

But Castro Marques, who had missed a few free throws down the stretch, hit 2 free throws on the next trip to essentially ice the game.

Atlanta also got 17 points from de Souza and 15 from Sancho Lyttle, while Sylvia Fowles added 24 points and Dominique Canty scored 12 points for the Sky.

"Pretty much everything was in transition for them," Sky coach Steven Key said. "That's because they're a fast team and a quick team and if you don't take care of the ball and if you don't convert around the basket, they're going to run it down your throat and that's what happened tonight."