Frustrations are rising in the Sky (3-5) locker room.
That’s what happens when you lose four straight at home after a 3-1 start to the season. Guards Rachel Banham and Sydney Taylor looked at a loss for words after Friday night’s loss to the Lynx. Asked what was going on with the team, Taylor gave a long pause.
“I’m not quite sure,” she said. “We’re battling a lot of adversity, a lot of injuries. People are sick right now.
“It’s no excuse for coming out and playing like that. I think sometimes we’re great on offense and sometimes we’re great on defense. But like coach said, we got to put both sides of the ball together and finish games.”
The pancake of Sky basketball has indeed come out lumpy as of late. Wednesday against the Tempo, the offense finally clicked for 104 points — but they let Marina Mabrey and company run loose for 111. Then they held the Lynx under 80 and failed to score 60 themselves.
One frustrating fact has held constant through it all: the Sky can’t hit a 3 to save their lives. The team is shooting 24.7% from deep, dead last in the league. Banham, their best 3-point shooter, is at a career-low 29.4%.
Asked whether a systemic issue was keeping the team from hitting shots, Banham gave an emphatic “no.”
“I think we’ve gotten great looks,” Banham said. “I think I’ve gotten the best looks I’ve got in my entire pro career this season. I’ve never been this open. For real. It’s exciting. And then I can’t make a damn basket.
“We’re just not making shots right now. It really is what it is. We’re gonna shoot ourselves out of it. I haven’t lost confidence in myself, or Syd, or any of our shooters. It’s just frustrating.”
Snipers missing open shots is deflating. Uncharacteristic turnovers are, too. The Sky had softened the blow of poor shooting by taking great care of the ball this season — but they coughed it up 18 times against the Lynx, who capitalized.
Looming over the inconsistent play are the injuries. Leading scorer Rickea Jackson is out for the season. Rookie wing Gabriela Jaquez has missed the last two games with a knee injury. And stretch big Azurá Stevens, in her third game back from injury, remains on a minutes restriction — and has hit just 1 of her first 11 3-pointers.
That’s squeezed the roster. Rookie development player Aicha Coulibaly has had to spot big minutes and has already been activated for six of her 12 allotted games. Signing rookie Saylor Poffenbarger to a hardship contract became necessary as the “healthy” player count fell below 10.
The Sky are not playing with the marquee rotation fans imagined when the season began.
Still, there’s a sense inside Wintrust Arena that the remaining talent should be performing better.
“We have little moments where we’re really bad, and moments when we’re really good,” Taylor said. “When they’re bad, they tumble and keep adding up.”
They’ll have a chance to stop tumbling on the road next week. Their next two games are against the Mystics (11th) and a rematch with the Tempo (10th). Though the WNBA season has no ‘gimmes,’ they’ll have better odds than battling the Lynx (1st) three times in two weeks. Win both, and they’re back at .500.
“We have accomplished players in that locker room and this is still early season,” coach Tyler Marsh said. “Nobody’s given up on where we’re at, what the vision is, or what the season still could be. We’ve gotta come together and fix it.”
Lose both, though, and Marsh, too, might find himself at a loss for words.