It’s no dream — Sky win clinches East
In an age of smartphones and computers, it’s tough to stay in the dark about much of anything.
But, with straight faces and in all seriousness, Chicago Sky players Courtney Vandersloot and Allie Quigley explained that they and their teammates were blissfully unaware of the massive stakes attached to Saturday’s game at Allstate Arena against the visiting Atlanta Dream.
“I didn’t know about it until after we got back in here (the locker room) after the game,” said Quigley, a reserve guard who played her college ball at DePaul.
“Well, I actually did know. I did. But not until literally right before the game,” said Vandersloot, the starting point guard. “I think we just always go into a game thinking that we’re going to play hard regardless.”
Regardless, supposedly, of whether the game means nothing or if it means clinching the Eastern Conference title. The latter was the case this time for the Sky.
With a dominating 85-68 victory over Atlanta, the second-place team in the East, the Sky left little doubt as to its worthiness of its first-ever No. 1 seed for the playoffs.
Of course, it’s been a season of many big firsts for the Sky, which went from never earning a playoff berth in its first seven years, to this. In one season.
The Sky is now 21-8 and riding a six-game winning streak. On top of that, the Sky is tied with the Los Angeles Sparks for the second-best record in the WNBA. Both teams trail the Minnesota Lynx for the best record by just one game.
Finishing with the best record in the league would ensure the Sky homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs. There are five regular-season games on the Sky’s schedule. The Sky is now 12-2 at Allstate Arena.
“We’re always just trying to concentrate on the next game,” coach Pokey Chatman said. “We don’t have the luxury of having everything figured out, despite the good record and positive play. There’s still a lot of growth and minutes and experience that we need to gather so we can continue to be a better team.”
It was a complete team victory this time for the Sky, which was up by as many as 23. Nine of 10 players who entered the game scored, with the bench providing 29 points, a season-high.
Tamera Young led the reserves with 12 points and Quigley added 9 points to go along with 4 assists.
Star center Sylvia Fowles was too much to handle in the paint and finished with 18 points while forward Elena Delle Donne, a lock for rookie of the year and a frontrunner for league MVP, had 15 points.
Vandersloot had 9 assists as well as 8 points.
“We have a lot of weapons on this team and the offense starts with me and being able to get the ball to our girls at the right times,” Vandersloot said. “It feels nice that it resulted in a win.”
Atlanta, which has lost four games in a row, drops to 14-13. The Dream got a team-high 17 points from star guard and WNBA leading scorer (22 ppg) Angel McCoughtry, who played limited minutes due to a bum ankle.