Chicago Sky are suddenly becoming the team nobody wants to play originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The early WNBA spotlight entering 2026 largely centered around familiar names. The defending champion Las Vegas Aces remained the standard. The Indiana Fever and Caitlin Clark dominated national attention. Expansion franchises grabbed headlines simply by existing. Meanwhile, the Chicago Sky quietly started building something dangerous.
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Now the latest WNBA power rankings are forcing the rest of the league to pay attention. After opening the season with four straight road games, the Sky climbed all the way to No. 4 in the rankings behind what has quickly become the league’s nastiest defensive identity. Through the first week and a half of the season, Chicago leads the WNBA in defensive rating and opponent field goal percentage.
That is not accidental. This team is making life miserable for opponents.
Chicago’s defense is changing games
The modern WNBA is increasingly built around pace, spacing, and offensive firepower. Teams are flying past 90 points regularly, and several contenders are leaning heavily into transition offense and three-point shooting. Chicago is countering all of it with physicality and discipline.
The Sky are holding opponents to just 38.1% shooting from the field, the best mark in the league entering the new rankings. They are contesting everything, forcing uncomfortable possessions, and turning games into defensive battles. That identity travels, too.
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Opening the season with four consecutive road games could have easily buried a new-look roster early. Instead, Chicago thrived in hostile environments and spoiled the return of WNBA basketball in Portland with a road victory over the Portland Fire. That kind of toughness stands out this early in a season.
The Sky are winning differently than most contenders
What makes Chicago especially interesting is how different they look from many of the teams around them in the rankings. The Fever overwhelm teams offensively. The New York Liberty are stacked with elite scoring talent. The Aces still have championship-level firepower.
Chicago is grinding teams down. That style may not create the same nightly viral moments, but it becomes incredibly valuable over the course of a long season. Physical defensive teams tend to age well because defense travels even when shots stop falling.
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The Sky already look comfortable playing ugly games. That matters.
MORE: Lisa Leslie still believes Team USA missed a huge opportunity with Caitlin Clark
The biggest question now is whether Chicago can maintain this momentum after the injury to Rickea Jackson. Jackson had emerged as the team’s leading scorer before suffering a knee injury Sunday. The power rankings specifically noted the concern surrounding her status moving forward, and understandably so. Losing a primary scorer can completely shift the ceiling of a team still developing chemistry.
But in some ways, the injury may also reveal just how sustainable Chicago’s rise really is. If the Sky continue winning without needing explosive offensive numbers every night, they will become even more dangerous long term. Defensive-minded teams that survive adversity early often turn into playoff nightmares later.
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Chicago suddenly feels ahead of schedule
The most surprising part of the Sky’s rise may be how quickly it happened. A lot of preseason conversation around the WNBA focused on star power elsewhere. Chicago was viewed more as a developing roster than a true upper-tier contender. Ten days into the season, that framing already feels outdated.
The Sky do not look like a rebuilding team. They look like a team that already knows exactly who it is. And right now, that identity is carrying them faster than almost anyone expected.
