Nothing will be easy for the Chicago Sky this season.
That’s been made clear enough in the opening five games of the season. This team started the season with a lengthy injury list that has only grown, punctuated Sunday by the loss of Rickea Jackson to a torn ACL.
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Despite the anticipation surrounding Wednesday’s home opener at Wintrust Arena, the game took on a bittersweet pall as the entire roster wore Jackson’s jersey into the arena to show support for their injured teammate, who was not present as she prepares for surgery. And with an increasingly short-handed roster, the Sky couldn’t defend an early lead over the Dallas Wings as they dropped a 99-89 loss.
“The only constant on our team has been change so far,” guard Skylar Diggins said. “We understand that. But that was unacceptable defensive effort tonight.”
The game highlighted the starkest challenge for the Sky at the moment — weathering a steep size differential without Jackson. Coach Tyler Marsh moved rookie wing Gabriela Jaquez down to the four spot in the starting rotation to accommodate this loss, a tall task for a 6-foot guard in only her fifth WNBA game.
The size disparity will be lessened when forward Azurá Stevens returns from a knee injury, which the team expects in the next week. But in the meantime, the Sky remain short-handed in the frontcourt with only centers Elizabeth Williams and Kamilla Cardoso available.
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Photos: Dallas Wings 99, Chicago Sky 98 in home opener at Wintrust Arena
For the first half of the game, it seemed that Cardoso could single-handedly make up for the team’s other absences down low. She spun and shuffled and side-stepped around reigning Defensive Player of the Year Alanna Smith and created offensive opportunities for her teammates through screening and dribble handoffs at the perimeter.
Cardoso finished with a season-high 24 points and notched her third double-double of the season. But the Sky can’t manage with their star center alone. After leading by 11 points in the second quarter, the Sky caved under increased offensive pressure from the dynamic Dallas duo of Paige Bueckers (24 points) and Arike Ogunbowale (23 points). And while Smith struggled down low, the Wings took advantage of the lack of a secondary frontcourt player to feed Jessica Shepard, who finished with 18 points in a triple-double performance.
The Sky attempted to counter these looks as the Wings built toward a double-digit lead, playing Cardoso and Williams in a double-big rotation in an attempt to recoup some size.
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But Chicago was ultimately hamstrung by the team’s lack of 3-point shooting and faltering defensive effort. The Sky were outscored 27-15 from behind the arc, shooting only 24% from deep. They failed to record consecutive defensive stops for the entire second half, allowing the Wings to score 62 points in the final two quarters.
“It wasn’t good enough,” Marsh said. “It wasn’t the standard that we’ve set. They made us pay for every mistake that we made defensively.”
The Sky carved the lead down to three points with two minutes and 32 seconds left, but Ogunbowale snapped any semblance of a final comeback surge with back-to-back 3-pointers.
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Despite the loss, the Sky remain above .500 after opening the season by going 3-1 on a marathon opening road trip. They will host their next three games and will not play another road game this month.
“We lost one of the best players in the league, y’all,” Diggins said of Jackson. “There’s a lot of residuals that come off of that. We’ve just got to get into the swing of it. But I ain’t trippin’. I love our squad. We stay together. It’s a great unit and we love playing with each other. We gotta bring back that defensive intensity on Saturday.”
