Sloot/WNBA

[ZagDad84]

Catching up with yesterday, the Sky road Kahleah Copper's season best 21 points to a 73-65 victory over the Atlanta Dream. Chicago is currently ranked No. 3 out of the 12 WNBA teams with a 6-3 record and are riding a 2 game winning streak.

Sloot had an average game with 27 minutes, 9 points, 6 assists, 7 rebounds and a block. Sky shot normally overall at 43.6% but their ice cold shooting from 3 (5-19, 26.3%) continued for a second game. Sloot still leading the WNBA overall with 7.2 apg but is very closely followed by Natasha Cloud of Washington (7.1) and Sue Bird of Seattle (6.7).

Sloot stands at Groups on the WNBA all-time assist leader board and is now 100 assists behind Blogs Lindsey Whalen. Sloot has 65 assists in the Sky's first 9 games, and at her current pace, she should pass Whalen on the assist leader board sometime in the middle of July, 2022. Thats as far as Sloot can go this year, but assuming she plays next year and stays healthy, she would likely catch Forum Ticha Penicheiro towards the end of the season 2023.

Next game is tomorrow, Sunday, June 5, 2022 against the Washington Mystics on Amazon Prime @ 7:00 PM central time.

ZagDad

[ZagDad84]

While we have focused on this board on Sloot's conquest to move up the all-time WNBA assist leader board, there is another statistic for which she is in a nip and tuck fight for right now; All-time scoring leader for the Chicago Sky. Who is CV's competition for this crown, her own wife, Allie Quigley. Both players have held the title recently, but who is the current leader?



With Quigley's recent scoring issues, Sloot has moved ahead at least until tomorrow's game.

ZagDad

[seacatfan]

Only 21 minutes for Sloot today, what's up with that? Other starters played 25-28. 8 pts. 6 assists. They built up a big lead against the Mystics in the 2nd half, then Washington chipped away at it down the stretch. EDD with a scheduled rest game today.

[seacatfan]

Okay ZagDad, what is going on? 23 minutes for Sloot tonight, 17 for Evans. Is Wade really platooning them? Close game at the half, Mystics were running away in Q3, Sky rallied to almost steal it but came up just short. They stalled for a while during their comeback, Sloot was on the bench til about the 4 minute mark of Q4. She only had 6 pts/5 assists, it seems like these reduced minute, long stretches on the bench games aren't really agreeing with her. Unless there's something going on w/ a nagging injury, I have no idea what Wade is thinking. Best PG in the league, has been for years, yeah, sit her on the bench for long stretches, including in the 4th quarter. Brilliant strategy coach!

[ZagDad84]

You got me SeaCat.

The only correlation I see is that in today's game and the game where she played 21 minutes Sloot had a significant number of turnovers 6 & 5 correspondingly. But in tonight's game, Evans did not have any turnovers but in her 17 minutes only scored 3 points while Sloot scored 6 points on 3-5 shooting.

Maybe time management to keep her fresh for later in the season, but how many games are you going to lose in the meantime?

ZagDad

[seacatfan]

Hey the Sky took down the Sun today 83-79. Connecticut had been looking darn near unbeatable in recent weeks.

Sloot watch--28 minutes, 8 pts/8 assists.

For all the minutes Wade has been giving Evans lately...Allemand just joined the team and had more minutes between the 2 of them, 7 vs. 5. So I have no idea what the coach is doing or has been doing.

Meesseman had what must have been her best game w/ Chicago so far, 26 pts on 11-14 shooting.

[ZagDad84]

A couple of Sloot highlights from yesterday's game versus Connecticut:

Link #1: https://twitter.com/i/status/1535405374433595392

Link #2: https://twitter.com/i/status/1535407889623425026

Sloot still leading the assist race but is only 1 rebound ahead of Natasha Cloud.

The Sky are in third place in the WNBA at 8-4 behind the Connecticut Sun (10-4) and the Las Vegas Aces (10-2) and just ahead of Washington Mystics at 9-5.

ZagDad

[seacatfan]

Sloot w/ a game winning 3 under 1 second left, 88-86 win over the suddenly resurgent Liberty.

[seacatfan]

The Kelly Graves proteges went at it today. Sloot's best game maybe all season, 20 pts, 10 assists, 6 rebounds. Ionescu even better 27 pts, 12 assists, 13 rebounds, but Sloot struck last. Wish I had Amazon Prime, that would've been a great game to watch.


Dana Evans only played 2 minutes today. All those minutes she's been logging all season apparently weren't about developing her, just saving Sloot's legs. Allemand played 10. Candace had one of her signature "I don't feel like bothering with it today" kind of games, 4 pts and 4 reb in 21 minutes of action. Probably as skilled/talented as anyone who ever played, but the effort level is so variable.

[seacatfan]

Here's the game winner.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/QOB1rT6sRUY

[ZagDad84]

Despite getting only 4 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists in 21 minutes from their perineal all-star (Parker) and only 2 points in 20 minutes from their 31 year old rookie (Rebekah Gardner, the Sky still manage to score 88 points.

No matter the Sky were outshot by the Liberty 48.5% to 46.1% overall, 47.8% to 33.3% from 3 and 91.7% to 85.7% from the Charity Stripe, the Sky were victorious. Since the turnovers were essentially equal, must have been the difference in rebounds where the Sky dominated NY 41 to 26 overall and 12 o-boards to the Liberty's 2 o-boards.

Those o-boards directly led to the victory as the Sky missed 4 consecutive shots in the last 30+ seconds and promptly got the o-board each time leading to Sloot's game winning basket with less than a second to go.

Game Highlights Video Link: 06/12/22: Chicago Sky @ New York Liberty - WNBA.com - Official Site of the WNBA

Lots of interesting things going on with the Sky and Liberty today.

- Ionescu got her second triple double today which means she joins Parker, Sloot and Swoopes as the only WNBA players with more than one.

- Ionescu had her triple double in only 3 quarters, the only person to get a triple double this fast.

- Ionescu's triple double today means the WNBA has had two (2) triple doubles in the same season (Parker) for the first time ever.

- Sloot had 20 points and 10 rebounds today, the 9th time she has had at least 20 points and 10 rebounds, the most in WNBA history.

- Chicago remains undefeated in the Commissioner's Cup and needs only one more victory to guarantee a spot in the Commissioner's Cup Final.

- Yes, Kelly Graves was the head coach of both Sloot and Ionescu and he was at the game.

From our seats—the @chicagosky @Sloot22 Game Winner!! Video cred: @will__graves Video Link: https://twitter.com/i/status/1536077411535704064

So cool to be here watching these two legends; @Sloot22, @sabrina_i20, @nyliberty, @chicagosky




ZagDad

[seacatfan]

Sue Bird announced today that this will be her final season. So starting in '23 Sloot can really start chasing down Bird for career assists leader.

[seacatfan]

Watched most of the game on Friday, then scoreboard watched on Sunday. Sky blew an 18 point lead against the Dream, then had to go to OT to pull out the win. Sloot fouled out in the extra session, only had 4 assists. Next game trailed Indiana most of the way, grabbed a lead w/ about 1:45 left, then didn't score another bucket and lost. Not sure why Chicago has to make everything so difficult for themselves. Sloot had 7 assists in the loss. Not really piling up the assists this year like in previous seasons. I was wondering if Parker being ball dominant and wanting to direct the offense is having some effect, but Candace has been out w/ a knee injury the last 2.

Coach Wade still can't make up his mind about Evans. Buried her for a while, but then played her a bunch down the stretch of the Friday game. If she's not hitting 3's, she doesn't bring anything to the table as far as I can tell. Allemand had 5 assists in about 5 minutes in Q1 of the first game, but I don't think she did much other than that. I think the coach needs to pick a back up PG and set the rotation and quit screwing around.

[seacatfan]

A little bit more history being made--biggest come back in WNBA history. Aces jumped out 41-18 in Q1 and were up as much as 28, Sky came back to win by 9. Combo of Sky playing great and Aces absolutely sucked most of Q2 and Q3. Sloot with another master class running the point, 25 points 8 assists, 10-14 shooting.

[seacatfan]

Also, this was a sneak peak at the upcoming Commissioner's Cup game. Still to be determined who will host. Some extra $$$ on the line. Hopefully the Storm didn't jinx it last year. They were the best team up to that point, crushed Connecticut in the Cup, then turned to crap the rest of the season after the All Star/Olympics break.