Marina Mabrey was born different.
At least that’s how she, without hesitation, describes her confidence, which is not as innate as it might seem to outsiders. Mabrey has to work at it. Some days are easier than others.
When she’s navigating slumps like the one she found herself in the last two weeks, some reflection is required to readjust.
“I was not feeling like myself two weeks ago,” Mabrey said. “I was definitely not feeling like myself. I can see it in my energy and my face. I think it’s more about the awareness and consciousness of knowing your confidence is taking a hit and being able to figure out what it is that brings that confidence back.”
A 22-point performance against the last-place Storm on Saturday didn’t hurt in jump-starting that confidence. With each three-pointer Mabrey made in Seattle — she went 4-for-7 from deep in the Sky’s 90-75 victory — her fire grew and the energized celebrations returned.
That fire is exactly why former coach/general manager James Wade traded for Mabrey. After losing several stars in free agency, Wade made a swift decision to bring in a player he felt would prevent the franchise from falling to the bottom of the league and provide needed firepower to complement Kahleah Copper.
So he gave up multiple draft picks and signed her to a three-year deal worth $202,000 in her first year, $208,000 in her second and $210,000 in her third.
The drawback is that the Sky are still on the precipice of falling out of playoff contention.
When the team’s offense is running cohesively and players are passing up good looks to help each other find great ones, Mabrey’s production has no limits. But the Sky have yet to find that consistency, and that problem was apparent during their four-game skid, which included an 18-point loss to the 10th-place Mercury.
During the losing streak, Mabrey averaged eight points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.3 assists.
“You’re going to go through little phases where you’re not playing your best basketball, but you can’t attach your self-worth to it,” Mabrey said. “That’s how it spirals out of control, goes downhill, and you start to think of yourself as only a basketball player.”
During such stretches, Mabrey trusts that her shot is always going to come back, just like the Sky trust that they’ll figure out their cohesion issues to secure a fifth straight postseason berth.
This week, they face the league’s most formidable team, the Aces, who’ve only lost two games this season. The Sky are not oblivious to the uphill battle.
“They’re not a normal team,” Mabrey quipped in response to a question about how the Sky will approach this game.
The Sky have shown that when they stay together and don’t play selfishly, they can find success.
“It helps when you play with your teammates,” Mabrey said. “When you’re not trying to do too many things by yourself and you wait for your teammates to find you, you just get easier shots like catch-and-shoot [looks] and backdoors. Then defense leads to offense, making it easier to score. So I think we all play better individually when we play great defense together.”
The Aces will be without Candace Parker, who didn’t travel with the team for the game Tuesday night as she works through an ankle injury. But even without Parker, Becky Hammon’s team is like a speeding freight train en route to the championship series.
Beating the Aces will require a close-to-perfect game from the Sky, and even that might not be enough.
