Sloot/WNBA

[seacatfan]

Seattle surged past Vegas late. Aces and Sun have both lost 3 of their last 4. I think Sky are clearly the best team in the league RIGHT NOW, but that can change. Seattle might be #2, if you can get past the head scratching loss at home to LA. Storm just picked up Tina Charles, but I have a feeling that might blow up in their faces. For years now she's been putting up big numbers for crappy teams. Weird thing is all of her ex-teams seem to get better as soon as she leaves. There has to be something to that, right? Mystics are night and day compared to last year, and Phoenix has quickly gone 3-0 without her, after massively underachieving all season up to that point.

[seacatfan]

Sky doing what they do. Jumped out to a 20 point lead on Phoenix in Q1, gave almost all of it back by halftime. Eventually pulled away in the 2nd half. Sloot was nearly invisible today, 4 pts/3 assists in 23 minutes. Parker had 7 assists, Allemand had 5 in 17 minutes. I just don't understand why Sloot isn't getting assists this year like the previous 5 seasons. Her 6.5 per game is still near the top of the league, but she hasn't averaged less than 8.1 since 2016.

[seacatfan]

Aces got destroyed by the Lynx today. They really haven't recovered from their disaster against the Sky. 2-4 since then, and have looked bad doing it. Chicago now has the best record in the league by 1/2 game.

[ZagDad84]

Bright and early game for the Sky today. Game is set for 10:00 AM PST on the NBA Channel.

ZagDad

[ZagDad84]

Sky vs Lynx. In the battle between the two best teams in June, the Lynx win 81-78 as Allie Quigley missed a wide open 25 foot, 3-pointer at the buzzer. Sky worked back from a 9-point deficit with 8.5 minutes to go to take a 1 point lead with 2 minutes to play. For the next 1.5 minutes the teams traded the lead ranging from 1 to 2 points. The Sky finally missed on shot on their possession and Minnesota made theirs leading to a 2 possession game. The Sky played the "Hack a Shaq" game and got the Lynx lead down to 3 leading to Quigley's last second shot. Chicago lost the game primarily because they shot about 10% under their season averages on overall shooting and 3-point shooting, hence the slightly lower than average score of 78 points for the game. Sloot had a slightly below average game by scoring only 2 points (1-4), 5 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal, and 1 block to go with only 1 turnover in 25 minutes.

Highlights and Box Score Link: 07/06/22: Chicago Sky @ Minnesota Lynx - WNBA.com - Official Site of the WNBA

In the last game before the All-Star break, the Sky beat the Indiana Fever (worst team in the WNBA) 93-84. Indiana took their last lead at 10-9 and then the Sky increased their lead to 20 points and essentially maintained a 15-20 point lead through the 3rd quarter. The big lead led to all 5 starters on the Sky to have played only 0-24 minutes. In the 4th quarter the Fever slowly worked the lead down to 9 points but could never get over the hump. Courtney had a better game with 7 points (3-5), 5 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 blocks in only 19:56 minutes of playing time. No Lexi Hull stats for this game as she did not play due to a wrist injury.

With the victory, the Sky have a 1 game lead the Sky have earned the right to host the Commissioner's Cup in late July against the Las Vegas Aces. At the All-Star break, the Sky have a 2 game lead over the Connecticut Sun in the East, a 1 game lead over Las Vegas and 1.5 game lead over Seattle for the best record in the WNBA.

Highlights and Box Score Link: 07/07/22: Chicago Sky @ Indiana Fever - WNBA.com - Official Site of the WNBA

ZagDad

[ZagDad84]

WNBA All-Star skills challenge were held today.

In the skills challenge, a WNBA pro played with a high school player. The HS player started and had to dribble a weave through several obstacles, make a pass through a hole about 15 feet away (3 chances max), pick up a basketball, dribble down the court, make a lay-up and then pass the ball to the WNBA pro. The WNBA pro repeated the course except after the lay-up, they dribble back down the court and had to make a 3. There were a total of 8 teams. Sloot's team was ahead and Sloot got her 3 point shot off first but it bounced up off the rim and knocked her opponent's ball in, so Sloot's team lost in the first round. A. Stevens of the Sky, her team was also beat in the first round.

In the 3 point shooting contest, Allie Quigley (Sloot's wife) won the title in convincing fashion for the 4 time becoming the first pro, male or female, to win the 3-point shooting contest for a 4th time.

Highlights of Allie Quigley's 3-point shooting contest win link: Chicago Sky's Allie Quigley wins WNBA 3-point contest for record fourth time (espn.com)

ZagDad

[ZagDad84]

In the WNBA All-Star game, Team Wilson wore down Team Steward 134 - 112. Sloot (Team Wilson) had a decent game with 8 points (4-6 shooting), 6 rebounds, 8 assists, 2 steals to go with 3 turnovers in 17 minutes.

ZagDad

[seacatfan]

Sloot missed the game tonight, out on concussion protocol. Hopefully she'll be back soon. Her last several games have been fairly unproductive, I keep waiting her for explode w/ some 10 or 12 assist type of games.

Allemand had 8 dimes as the starter. I still can't see why Evans is on the team. Dallas went on a huge run while she was in during Q3, then Allemand came back in and righted the ship, cruised to a comfortable win in Q4. All that Dana can do is hit 3's, and she's not really that consistent doing that. She certainly can't run an offense, it grinds to a halt whenever she's running PG.

[ZagDad84]

The No. 1 Sky off until Wednesday when they face the No.3 Seattle Storm in Chicago in another early game in Chicago (9:00 AM PST) and is scheduled to be televised on NBA-TV.

Not having to travel improves the odds that Sloot will be able to play on Wednesday.

Sloot is currently 16 assists behind No. 3 Lindsey Whalen on the all-time WNBA assists leaderboard.

ZagDad

[seacatfan]

Sky hold off the Storm in another early game. No Sloot again. They weren't hitting 3s and missing their starting PG and still able to beat maybe the second best team in the league. Storm had been sneaking up, were within 2 games of Chicago. Now 3 back, with 10 games left, and Seattle has a bunch of road games. Would take a total collapse for the Storm to be able to catch them now.

[ZagDad84]

The No. 1 Sky win at home over No. 3 Seattle 78-74. Surprised a little by the final score as the Sky shot a reasonable 48.5% overall but a woeful 5-21 (23.8%) from 3 which would lead one to think they had no chance of scoring 78 points especially against Seattle's defense. Credit Chicago for winning the boards big time 38-28 over the Storm.

The Sky won despite not having Sloot today as she is still sitting out in concussion protocol. Sky have a game at home on Friday versus the Dallas Wings (on CBSSN) and a third game this week on Saturday against the New York Liberty (NBA-TV). Hopefully we will see Sloot back on the court on Friday.

With the win today Chicago now has a 5 game winning streak while no other team has a winning streak greater than 2. Sky have a 2 game lead over the Las Vegas Aces for the best record in the WNBA and a 3 game lead over both the Connecticut Sun and the Seattle Storm. With their win today, the Chicago Sky become the first team to clinch a playoff spot.

ZagDad

[seacatfan]

No Sloot again. Chicago looked great in the first half, terrible much of the second half, but managed to pull out another W. I doubt Sloot will play tomorrow. Wasn't in the building tonight, they have a RIDICULOUSLY early flight to NY tomorrow morning.

Meesseman was brilliant early in the game, then kinda faded. Copper led them in scoring. Allemand took over late, scored 13, 8 in the last 3:45. 6 assists too. I really like her game. She's darn good for a backup PG, and plenty adequate as a starter.

[seacatfan]

Chicago lost their last game against the Liberty, no Sloot.

The Commissioner's Cup game is tonight. Haven't seen anything about Sloot's availability for the game.

To me, it's a completely meaningless game (except the winners get a nice cash bonus). The league keeps trying to convince otherwise, but I don't see it. The rest of the teams get most of the week off (no games between Sunday and Thursday) and are enjoying some needed rest. It's on Amazon Prime, so it's going to be a fairly limited audience viewing. If it really mattered, it should be on one of the ESPN channels, or ABC. It isn't.

[ZagDad84]

We keep hearing that the WNBA is trying to build their league. Yet after 25 years, all they have is 12 teams and approximately 144 players.

To me, it's (Commissioner's Cup) a completely meaningless game (except the winners get a nice cash bonus). The league keeps trying to convince otherwise, but I don't see it. The rest of the teams get most of the week off (no games between Sunday and Thursday) and are enjoying some needed rest. It's on Amazon Prime, so it's going to be a fairly limited audience viewing. If it really mattered, it should be on one of the ESPN channels, or ABC. It isn't.

If there ever was any doubt about how little the TV market thinks of the WNBA, see SeaCat's comment above. This game features the two best teams in the WNBA with little competition for TV's sports audience and yet they can't get it put on national TV.

It is sad that I watched the UEFA women's semi-final game between England and Sweden this afternoon, but can't watch the Commissioner's Cup game tonight.

ZagDad

[seacatfan]

Are the Sky setting up the Aces for another massive comeback? 20 point lead for LV already in Q1. Plum is on fire, 4-4 behind the arc and has outscored Chicago by herself. Nearly has them doubled up.