DiJonai Carrington can do almost everything in practice again. The harder part is not thinking about it.
Speaking to the media Tuesday for the first time since training camp, Carrington called the foot injury she suffered in last season’s playoffs “traumatic” and the 10-month recovery process “long, tedious and non-linear.”
But suiting up in the coming days, maybe even before the All-Star break, now seems plausible.
The Sky guard is taking part in most live drills and staying afterward to play full-court games with practice players. She has spent weeks getting shots up, working with trainers and rebuilding her conditioning.
There have been good days and bad ones. Some anxiety remains.
“When you see a lot of feet on the court and you have a foot injury, it’s a mental hurdle,” Carrington said.
Carrington is defining success this season, at least on a personal level, by what happens in her head. Can she play freely and without hesitation? Can she stop second-guessing every movement and wondering whether her foot will be all right?
She is, of course, still optimistic that her particular skill set can help the Sky turn things around.
That starts on defense.
Carrington believes they generally have done a good job defending opposing stars for the first three and a half quarters, only to let them loose in the final stretch. She knows she often will draw that assignment, and she is confident she can shut that player down.
That is the promise of Carrington: a true defensive stopper who prides herself on sustaining the same effort and attention to detail for a full 40 minutes. Her ability to get to the hoop will also help open up opportunities on offense.
But Carrington’s return will not be a cure-all.
She will need time to regain her rhythm. And no one player is going to fix a 7-16 team, especially one that, as Carrington acknowledged, has struggled to establish an identity while major pieces keep moving in and out of the lineup.
The Sky’s most stubborn problem: They do not know how to hold on to leads.
“I do think we need to focus on closing games and playing to win as opposed to playing not to lose,” Carrington said. “In a lot of those games, we stop playing the brand of basketball that got us to that point and try to switch it up in order to not lose.”
Three weeks ago, the almost-wins against good teams could be treated as positive indicators, signs the Sky were close and just needed a few breaks to fall their way — or a few injured players to return.
But the same problems have persisted through every lineup adjustment and every player added back to the mix, from Azurá Stevens to Courtney Vandersloot. They’re simply too deep into the season for almost to count as progress.
“It doesn’t matter whether you lose by one or you lose by 40 — it’s still an L,” Carrington said.
Those losses are eating away at the Sky’s playoff chances while the other teams near the bottom begin to figure it out. The 15th-place Sun recently knocked off the top-ranked Lynx. The 14th-place Storm, who come to town Wednesday, have beaten the playoff-contending Dream and Liberty.
All that means Carrington will be returning to a sticky situation. The Sky see themselves as a playoff contender, but right now are struggling even to separate themselves from teams that are openly rebuilding.
Carrington, meanwhile, will have to relearn how to play free on a team that keeps tightening up at exactly the wrong moments.
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