NFL
By: Stephen Garner
Welcome to “Stephen’s Sky Scope,” where I’ll be giving game-by-game insights on the Chicago Sky, looking at numbers, and posting film clips all the same in sharing some of what catches my attention pertaining to the reigning WNBA champions, or their opponents, from their most recent matchup.
With that in mind, let’s dive right into their 76-83 loss to the Aces on Saturday.
Missed Rotations
One of the things a good team will do is, put stress on your defense.
There are a few different ways you can go about doing this, but the Aces are pretty much profound in all of these attacks. You can add stress via shot creation, they have multiple creators. Via the pass, they have multiple passers that can make passes that stress defensive rotations, & can do so off of their self-creation. Via cuts, they have plenty of smart cutters. And via post play, they have three players capable of functioning there.
When functioning in these spaces, the attention it garners from the help is what allows them to be effective most, as when multiple attentions are garnered and forced to rotate, that’s when the chess begins.
You can get a series of these, maybe even contain a few, and still get burned late in the clock. That’s the chaos the Aces present, regardless of what you may do defensively. It’s no different than what the Sky present to the opposition.
At the same time, sometimes defensive rotations were off schedule or unattended to. This was the case a few times for the Sky on Saturday.
Take here for an example:
The Sky like to show, hard hedge, or trap on ball screens, playing the role of dictator in those scenarios via their versatile frontcourt pieces. with their versatile frontcourt pieces. Here, it’s Meesseman out in space as she stagnates the dribbler, but Coppers is a little off-balance navigating over, allowing an uncontested pass and there’s no weak side rotation to tag the roller, so it results in an easy bucket.
The same goes here’s.
And… Here.
They were a little off with their rotations in this one early, again some by their doing and some they were just beat, but it’s somewhere they’ve typically been sharp through the early portion of the schedule. They did, however, pick it up as the game went on and showed why they’re one of the top third in the league defensively.
Rebekah Gardner, Emma Meesseman are Connectors
You may hear me use the word “connector” a lot when speaking on certain players, and it quite simply means being a key piece in a function of getting things from A to B, typically after the an action or scheme is already rolling.
Take this play for example.
Sky love their high-low looks for paint touches. They go two-high on in an empty corner. Quigley to Parker to Meesseman on the duck in. True to Emma’s connecting nature, she playmakes and quickly bounces it second-side to Copper for an early 3.
This one doubles as the Sky set of the game with the pace and ball movement intertwined..
Here’s Emma connecting on both ends for a sequence.
Kicks Copper out as she’s trailing the roller of the double drag, boxes out her new matchup enabling the push with pace, then comes down court and (smartly) clears out for Evans on this drive.
Emma functions as a connector in a multitude of ways on both ends. Specifically on offense, you’ll see her in playmaking positions to pass, initiate offense, screen, short-roll playmaking, and in throw-and-get scenarios. She’s an automatic added bonus to any given action when involved, with a superior IQ and feel for the game.
Then here’s Rebekah doing the little things extremely well.
Sound On
Excellent job communicating her rotation then executing it, allowing the Sky to put one last stamp on that defensive possession.
After some missed Rotations earlier, they absolutely nailed it in the one above, and no surprise who was on the floor for them to execute in that.
These two, Meesseman and Gardner, doing the little things so often and so well as connectors, truthfully unlocks everything for the Sky on both ends of the floor.
The Aces are really (really) Freaking Good
Vegas was a problem in the second quarter on Saturday in large part due to their all-encompassing attack, on both ends of the floor.
After her hot first quarter, Kelsey Plum lit into their collective efforts defensively, and they came out with the desired ferocity (and then some) in the second frame.
Extremely sound and active with their discipline at the blocks and elbows. Then, they mixed in some 2-1-2, 2-3, and box-and-one with the Sky’s Parker + bench lineups.
Here’s the 2-1-2 with Hamby “2.9’ing” at the nail playing center field, while everyone else has the blocks and elbows covered. There’s nothing there for the Sky with no player movement.
Next is the box-and-one variant with again, ball movement/player movement/rhythm stagnated. It’s more of a shock thing before they read and react. The shock portion being the main reasoning for it from the Aces as they are looking to steal possessions.
They’re in it again here but look who’s active and making plays to stop the run.
Excellent job lifting for the passing angle, then the pump fake to freedom. So sound fundamentally.
This stopped a run but the Aces began humming and caught their flow, as seen by the Sky lapses above in rotations. That team is tough to beat when they flow in a two-way manner.
Nonetheless, the Sky are STILL the best team in the league. They may not be in this exact moment, but overall they’re still the best and, even amidst a cold shooting night, gave themselves a puncher’s chance in the end of what turned out to be one helluva game.
What’s next: The Sky welcome back Diamond DeShields as she’s likely to receive her championship ring prior to the Sky doing battle with the Mercury on Tuesday.
