Sky Just Kissed the Playoffs Goodbye
The window wasn’t wide open, but the Chicago Sky’s chances of making the playoffs were officially closed shut.
Now, of course, you can look at them mathematically and say hey, they aren’t out of it. But you can crunch the numbers all you want, the season is over.
The Sky have struggled this year. We all know it. To make matters worse, they entered the real grind of their schedule. However, they kicked things off right by grabbing an upset win over the Minnesota Lynx last Saturday night.
The smiling faces and wishful thinking nevertheless went out the window in these last two games.
In an immediate rematch, the Lynx took them to school, beating them by 13 points. Still, splitting a mini two-game series with the Lynx wasn’t the worst thing in the world. But, with the All-Star break now here, the Sky needed to get it together and take down the Atlanta Dream to feel good about their chances.
Those plans, though, have gone by the wayside.
The Dream handed out a lopsided beating tonight, winning by 37 points. It was a lot to ask the Sky to get the W. Although they got a chance to sleep in their own bed and have their fans cheer them on, there were too many missing bodies to help the cause.
Angel Reese and Ariel Atkins were sidelined with injuries. Combined, they provide the Sky with nearly 30 points of offense. Without them, they were lost on that side of the ball.
Taking a look at the stat sheet isn’t fun. There wasn’t a single Sky player who scored in double figures tonight, only one player shot at least 50% from the field, and overall, the team never scored more than 13 points in a given quarter.
Now, the Sky are four games in the loss column behind the Golden State Valkyries for the final playoff spot. They’re also eight games below .500.
When they get back from vacation, things won’t get better. With eight of their next nine games against teams with a winning or .500 record, the losses are bound to pile up. So while they’ll fight to the end, the rest of their season will be used for development.
A graduate of Queens College, Hans has covered practically every sport you can think of. The NBA, NFL, Boxing, UFC, Tennis, MLB, even Rugby! His work has appeared in various places such as Bleacher Report, USA Today, Fox Sports, and FanSided. When he isn’t reporting or writing on sports, he’s watching it. He also enjoys boxing, lifting weights at the gym, and debating anything sports-related.