Sky point guard Courtney Vandersloot spent the early part of Friday with her emotions all over the place: nerves, excitement and everything in between.
Then she checked in midway through the first quarter and looked totally in control.
Her first stint included a curveball lob to Kamilla Cardoso, nearly perfect decision-making and a driving scoop layup.
Clearly, the “Floor General” nickname still holds.
“She was back tonight like she never left,” coach Tyler Marsh said. “You could tell she was back in her happy place. It took all of about 15 seconds for her to yell at one of her teammates to get where they were supposed to be.”
It was no coincidence that Vandersloot’s return lined up with not just the Sky’s best offensive performance of the season in a 124-94 victory against the Fire, but one point shy of the WNBA record for most points by a team in regulation.
“It’s obviously been a rough part of the season, so to have nights like tonight on the heels of Wednesday’s game, I think that it’s something that [our team] deserves for the work that they put in,” Marsh said.
By 8:30 p.m., the Sky had taken down a host of scoring records. But by 10 a.m., the day already felt different. The energy at shootaround was higher and looser.
During the game, Cardoso’s smile — the one she flashes every so often — lasted longer and appeared more frequently.
That will happen when you play the best game of your career.
Cardoso set a WNBA record for most field goals without a miss, making all 13 of her shots on her way to 30 points and eight rebounds.
Maybe the happiest of them all — though one had to watch closely for the subtlest of cues from Mr. Never Too High, Never Too Low — was Marsh, who has been chomping at the bit, subtly of course, to get his floor general back.
Marsh has been through plenty in these early summer months, trying to manage a struggling team, injuries, and long stretches of the ball not falling through the basket.
He knows that while the Sky have established an identity defensively, their offense is still a work in progress. Vandersloot can help define it.
“I want to play fast, selfless,” Vandersloot said. “The open player gets the ball. We have a lot of threats. … But we all need to do our job for it to look right. [We’re at our best when we’re] focused on details and playing with pace, good to great, all of those things. It sounds like a bunch of cliches, which it is, but that’s what a good offense looks like.”
That vision clearly bore out Friday night. Six Sky players scored in double figures. Seven of the 10 players who checked in shot better than 50%. Cardoso was perfect. Buckets finally came easy.
If only every game could be against the Fire, who the Sky have now beaten three times.
Things get more serious Sunday against the second-place Aces. Some logistical questions remain about how the Sky’s three-point guard lineups will work. Then again, if they can get 30 points from Cardoso every night, an excess of ballhandlers around her hardly seems like the worst problem to have.
“We have a lot of good weapons, and when we play to their strengths, then these kinds of nights can happen,” Vandersloot said. “This was a really good one for us, a really good momentum shifter. I think we know our identity and can build off this.”
One of Vandersloot’s messages to her slumping team has been that things can change fast in this league.
The Sky hit rock bottom a week ago in Connecticut, blown out by the bottom-dwelling Sun. Since then, they’ve won two straight, gotten their floor general back and crushed a host of scoring records.
Maybe The General’s onto something.