What’s up Skytown! Your Townies are pleased to report that the Sky are now 5-3, having split their series with the New York Liberty and beat the Indiana Fever in overtime. Check out the sick, buzzer-beating dish from Marina Mabrey to Alanna Smith that got us into OT!
Here’s one Townie’s thoughts on the play:
“I heard that Coach Wade said he drew up the wrong play at the end of the Liberty game and thought that loss was on him. So he must have been excited to get to draw up the perfect magic play against the Fever, because I did low key feel like the play was fire, or at least we looked so much more in control.”
Game Recaps
vs. Indiana Fever, Win, 108-103/OT
We haven’t written much about third-year point guard Dana Evans this year, though she’s having her best season yet. We’ve just been quietly enjoying validation of our strongest opinion from last year: that Dana Evans did not play enough.
Against the Fever–in what was probably the most exciting game of the year–Dana Evans finished with a season-high 20 points and seven assists. She hit a big three to start the overtime period, and then Kahleah Copper and Alanna Smith followed up with two big buckets. The Fever responded though!
The Sky finally got the stop they needed with a minute left to play, up 98-96.
Be smart now, Sky, run some offense.
^That’s what the Townies were thinking.
Now watch this video (created in iMovie by our Instagram specialist/Voice of Gen Z) and tell us what Dana Evans was thinking.
Or, if you’d like the Voice of Gen Z’s reflection on the moment:
“I need a GIF of Courtney Williams telling a wide open Dana Evans to cut through the lane and Dana aggressively saying “No give me the ball” and Courtney reluctantly passing it to her and Dana hitting the game sealing three.”
Life lesson here for ya folks: when the world lacks the necessary GIFs, make them yourself!
Another lesson: the most badass thing you can do in life is to refuse the instructions of your veteran teammate, demand the ball to shoot a deep three with 50 seconds left on the clock, and sink that sh*t. Go Dana.
The Voice of Gen Z’s thoughts on the Fever dub:
“I love our grittiness to come back and win games, but if we continue to play every game to the wire like this, it is going to be a trying time for my heart rate.”
vs. New York Liberty, split 1-1
Lost 74-73 at Wintrust
Won 86-82 at Barclays Center
We may be changing the Voice of Gen Z's title to JEWEL-OSCO DANCE OFF CHAMPION!! That's right, against the Liberty at home, one Townie did the worm during the 3rd quarter dance-off and won a gift card that covered about 25% of our beach snacks the next day. Thanks for the memories Jewel-Osco!!
Overall, it was a solid showing from the Sky that may have ended differently had Kahleah Copper not tweaked her ankle in the last minute of the first half. Up until that point, Copper was having maybe her best half of basketball ever? Thanks to her 18 first half points the Sky finished the half up 43-35 against the Liberty super team.
It was an intense moment when Copper got hurt though. As the trainers carried her off the court, I briefly considered how it would feel to watch a Kahleah Copper-less Sky for the rest of the season. I almost threw up, and then tried to have side conversations with the rest of our group to distract myself.
As Copper approached the tunnel, she tested to see if she could put weight on her ankle. She could! The stadium erupted into cheers. Clearly no one had actually been paying attention to their side conversations! We’d all just been silently praying that Kahleah Copper would not require surgery.
Just shows you how traumatized we all are from watching Rebekah Gardner go down two weeks ago. We can’t bear to lose anybody else, especially not Cop.
Our Lead Basketball Analyst’s thoughts on the loss, high off of meeting Allie Quigley:
“A promising one-point loss! Wintrust was bumpin’. Given my encounter with Quigs and the Voice of Gen Z’s dance off victory, it was easily my favorite game ever attended. Fun to see Kah with the team on her back in the first half. Didn’t know Alana Smith could go off like she did [7-7 from the field and 4-4 from three-point range]. Also we out rebounded the Liberty by ten–with their front court???? We were grittier and perhaps that’s why it felt like we should have won.”
Two days later in New York, Kaheah Copper came back hard, dropping 28 points in our 86-82 dub. The Townies had been hoping to see her shoot more threes–so we were pumped to see her go 5-8 from three-point land! Keep goin’ Cop!
Overall, we were not impressed with the Liberty super team in this series. That was in part because Sabrina Ionescu played terribly, shooting 3-16 from the field and 1-9 from three. She will probably make more than four shots when we meet the Liberty again in August.
However, one of our associates had an interesting take, that super teams won’t work as well in the WNBA, because teams only have 40 regular season games to gel, compared to 82 regular season games in the NBA. What do you all think about that?
Our next game is TODAY Friday June 9th @ 9p.m. against the LA Sparks. Watch on Ion or WNBA Leaguepass (maybe?).
Awesome recap Townies! So well written, accurate & very funny. Bravo!