Sky starters dominate, Shock starters warm bench

Both the Chicago Sky and the Tulsa Shock had already secured WNBA playoff spots before they met up at Allstate Arena on Friday night.

But the two head coaches of each team certainly had much different philosophies on how to treat a technically insignificant game late in the regular season.

Fred Williams of Tulsa sat three of his starters for the entire game. The other two played a total of 22 minutes, combined.

Meanwhile, Sky head coach Pokey Chatman let her all of her starters at least break a sweat. Playing between 17 and 20 minutes apiece, they got the Sky off to a good start. And for the second game in a row, the reserves finished strong en route to a 92-71 win over Tulsa.

The Sky, which starts the playoffs on Thursday at UIC Pavilion against either the Indiana Fever or the Washington Mystics, improves to 21-12 on the season while Tulsa drops to 17-16.

"At this time of year, it's important for us to maintain and gain momentum," Chatman said. "The big picture is important, because the playoffs (with 3-game series) are so quick. It's important (for the starters) to keep that momentum."

Star forward Elena Delle Donne, the leading scorer in the WNBA (23.7 ppg), paced the Sky with 21 points in 17 minutes. Fellow starter Jessica Breland added 14 points and reserve guard Allie Quigley also scored 14 points on two 3-pointers.

The rest of the bench scored 25 points, with 9 points coming from back-up point guard Jamierra Faulkner, who also had 5 assists. In the Sky's previous game, a win against Seattle last weekend, the bench rolled up 57 points.

"The trust (in the bench) has come not just from games, but seeing what they do in practice every single day," Delle Donne said. "I don't just judge on games. We're in practice way more than games and they've been producing all year long."

The Sky broke open its 4-point halftime lead (51-47) by out-scoring Tulsa by 10 points in the third quarter.

Tulsa, which is also missing starting point guard and former Notre Dame star Skylar Diggins (knee injury), got a game-high 22 points out of forward Vicki Baugh, 16 points out of regular starter Jordan Hooper, 12 points and 8 assists out of Brianna Kiesel and 10 points out of Tiffany Jackson-Jones.

Next game: Sky at Connecticut Sun, final regular season game, 12 noon, Sunday.