NFL
By: Stephen PridGeon-Garner
The Sky pieced together one of their most connected defensive efforts in Atlanta, led by their torture twin tandem on the wings in Kahleah Copper and Rebekah Gardner.
Their 73-65 win on Friday, as they ascend to third in the W, was rooted in multiple efforts defensively as, through that at the foundation, they both generated offensive flow and dictated the pace of the game.
Tasked with defending present league phenom and WNBA Rookie of the Month, Rhyne Howard, the Sky knew they’d be in for a test of the most unique variety.
In a 6’2 175lb frame, the 2022 1st overall pick possesses an array of skills allowing for her to already have proven to be adept functioning on-ball as a screen and roll initiator as well as off-ball in movement and off-screen shooting.
Her game as a scorer is all-encompassing, and subsequently garners the attention of more than just her primary defender as, oftentimes, it takes more than just point of attack defense to get the job done.
Coming into Friday, she was averaging 17.3 points per game.
She’s a Rubix cube of sorts to solve, combining already elite guard skills in separation and shooting prowess in a slightly taller frame than a lot of her matchups. Therefore, either opponents have the lateral mobility and quickness to keep up but lack the height or the inverse of that. To which she’s prolific at recognizing and exploiting as she navigates the pressure points of the defense.
The Sky is uniquely built-in having two elite wing stoppers who can defend without fouling, guard taller matchups viably, and take the reigns in point of attack defense to defend with activity in styles unique to themselves.
I asked coach James Wade about Gardner’s ever-present activity after Tuesdays win over the Mercury, to which he went into detail about both her and Coppers defensive value:
Both Copper and Gardner are disciplined in defending with physicality to the legal limit, showing the present moment awareness to adjust mid-game to how the whistle is being blown, keeping their services available both independent of each other and in tandem for their team, making for 40 minutes of relentless ball pressure when the appropriate matchups present themselves on the perimeter.
Friday was their most resounding tandem effort, as they held Howard to a 2-for-12 shooting. Even more, she was held to her second-lowest scoring total (5), second-lowest usage percentage (18.1%), and second-lowest points per possession mark (0.38).
As a team, the Dream scored their second-lowest point total of the season.
All indicative of the activity and multiple efforts compiled collectively, but the initiators were their torture twins.
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Past their lowest scoring total (65), collectively, the Dream also shot their second-lowest field goal percentage (34.7%), third lowest three-point percentage (26.1%), and tied for their second-lowest free throw attempts (8).
The Sky’s seven first-half blocks were the most by any team this season, they’d finish with nine (second to 10 mark they registered against the Aces).
Not the subject of this piece, but I’d be remiss if I did not speak on Emma Meesseman and her defensive player of the year efforts in yet another deposit of game-long efforts to support this claim.
She’s an absolute menace with her communication, ever-presence, and activity. Whether that’s playing varying coverages in pick-and-roll defense, doubling at the post on drives, helping the helper, peel switching on drives, or scramming guards to the weak side out of mismatches, she’s also “never not doing something,” and is as key as anyone to unlocking the dictating style of play coach Wade and company deploy on the less glamorous end.
Winning games in varying scenarios from up-tempo, to slow, to low scoring, to games where they lack the touch, to games where the defense may not quite be there, they’ve won in a multitude of ways already. Boding extremely well as they do so while ironing out the kinks.
