Mired in a season-long six-game losing streak, the Chicago Sky return home Friday to take on the Golden State Valkyries.
The Sky (7-19) lost Ariel Atkins to a leg injury at the start of the losing streak and received just seven games out of Courtney Vandersloot before she was lost for the season with a knee injury in June. Rookie Hailey Van Lith (ankle) has missed the past two games as well.
Angel Reese returned from a back injury and collected 22 points and 13 rebounds, but it wasn’t enough to overcome a 103-86 road loss to the Washington Mystics on Tuesday.
Chicago dabbled with a zone defense that proved to be problematic.
“We really are just trying this on the fly,” Sky guard Rachel Banham said, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. “Teams are doing a good job getting in the middle, finding those gaps. It’s a work in progress.”
The Sky could have Atkins and Van Lith back for against the Valkyries and are set to debut point guard Sevgi Uzun, who was just signed for the remainder of the season. Uzun has 47 games (19 starts) of WNBA experience over the past two seasons.
The expansion Valkyries (13-13) enter off a 68-67 road victory over the Mystics on Thursday. Golden State is back to .500 after it slipped under the break-even point after losing five of six games from July 5-16.
The victory came with a number of key pieces missing, including Cecilia Zandalasini (ankle). Zandalasini had 18 points and hit the game-winning shot in a 77-75 victory over the Atlanta Dream on Tuesday.
The Valkyries scored just six points in the fourth quarter but won by holding the Mystics to one field goal over the final 7:20 of the game.
“I don’t even look at the six points, I look at the score,” Valkyries head coach Natalie Nakase said. “Both teams couldn’t move that scoreboard at all, and so I was like, ‘Hey, look, we’re still up.’ … I thought that was a really good execution on the defensive end.”
Golden State is also 3-1 since leading scorer Kayla Thornton (14.0 points) was lost for the season to a knee injury. Monique Billings (7.5 points) has played nine minutes over the past four games because of an ankle injury.
–Field Level Media
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