Even early in season, Sky urgently need to course-correct after season-opening loss to Fever
It’s reasonable for the Sky to preach patience, and there’s prudence in that perspective one game into a 44-game season. But while it’s far too early to panic, alarms went off in their blowout loss to the Fever on Saturday.
Even taking into account that the roster has largely been remade and first-year coach Tyler Marsh is implementing a new style of play, they were “exposed” at both ends of the court, as veteran point guard Courtney Vandersloot put it.
It would be far too easy to simply brush aside the 93-58 defeat as merely a bad day. While it’s true the Sky had their worst shooting performance in seven years at a meager 29.1% from the field, the issues ran deeper than that.
Coming out of that loss, the bad news is their next game is against the defending champion Liberty. The good news is that’s not until Thursday, giving the Sky time to assess what went wrong and how to fix it.
“It’s about looking at yourself to see what you can do better,” Vandersloot said of the break in the schedule. “If everybody does that and comes with a better mentality, I’d really like to think that we’re not going to play that bad again.
“Of course, [improvement] is not just going to happen. We’ve got things we need to change. But we’re bought into this and we’re going to do it together.”
The Fever got off to a slow shooting start against the Sky, but finished at 46.7% from the field and 33.3% on three-pointers. That’s a strong game, but not an outlier. They were around those numbers overall last season.
The Sky couldn’t stay with them for long. The Fever led by double digits from one minute left in the second quarter through the end of the game.
Marsh saw his offense go “stagnant,” and little of what he and general manager Jeff Pagliocca put together in offseason roster building worked out.
“We got some great shots,” Reese noted. “May not have made them all, but it’s Game 1. Being able to look back in 20 games and be finishing and hitting those shots. It’s good to see that we can execute in the half court and get those open looks.”
All fair points, but they have an expiration date at some point. The Sky’s progress must be quicker and more tangible as they move forward.
Vandersloot, guard Ariel Atkins and forward Kia Nurse were brought in to space the floor and take attention away from Reese and Kamila Cardoso in the post, but they combined for 19 points on 7-for-23 shooting, including 2 for 11 on three-pointers. Meanwhile, Reese made 5 of 14 shots for 12 points and Cardoso made 3 of 9 for seven.
“I don’t see too many nights where we’re going to shoot this poorly,” Marsh said.
He’s probably right, but the Liberty will bring many similar challenges to the table when they arrive at Wintrust Arena.
They opened the season Saturday, too, and shut down a very good Aces team for a 92-78 victory. And that was with three-time All-Star Sabrina Ionescu going 0 for 5 on three-pointers.
They had four players score in double figures, led by star Breanna Stewart with 25 points and shot 49% as a team even with Ionescu struggling. They also held the Aces, who were overpowering offensively last season, to just 34% from the field.
The WNBA’s short training camp and preseason makes it tough for new coaches and new players to mesh, but Marsh won’t make any excuses, nor should he. In addition to his new scheme, he’s been determined to reshape the Sky’s culture and so far has gotten great reception from his players.
That message will get tested, though, if they don't start getting results on the court.