The Sky will take all the help they can get as the try to secure their place in the postseason, which at this point is anything but a guarantee.
In their 76-75 victory Tuesday night in Los Angeles, that help came in the form of three straight missed shots by Sparks guards Jasmine Thomas and Jordin Canada and finally forward Karlie Samuelson as the clock ran down. And on Thursday night, the Sparks offered another handout with their 72-61 loss to the 11th-place Storm, which left the Sparks and Sky tied for the eighth and final playoff spot at 15-21 with four regular-season games remaining. The Sky would claim that spot via tiebreaker: their 3-1 head-to-head record against the Sparks this year.
“We’re watching all these games,” Sky forward Kahleah Copper said. “We have to see where these chips fall.”
They still could fall in favor of the Sparks, whose schedule includes a home game against the Mystics, followed by three road games against the Liberty, Sun and Storm.
But the Sky have regained control of their fate. According to ESPN Stats, their odds of making the playoffs improved to 55.2% after their win Tuesday, while the Sparks’ chances fell to 47%, even before the loss to the Storm.
Still, if the Sky have proved anything this season, it’s that their only consistency is inconsistency. Under interim coach and general manager Emre Vatansever, they’re 8-12 with two losing streaks of four games or more.
Coming off their last road trip, which included wins against the Storm and Sparks, they appeared to have ironed out one issue: their late-game composure. They went on a 22-8 run in the fourth quarter against the Storm, erasing a nine-point deficit to win by five. And on Tuesday, after allowing the Sparks to come back from 10 points down in the fourth quarter, they stayed united, with Copper taking control in the final minutes. She scored eight of her game-high 22 points in the fourth quarter.
“This is when you want to be playing your best basketball — late in the regular season, going into the playoffs — because you have that confidence and you feel good,” she said. “For us to be trying to peak right now is actually really good.”
Whether the Sky are truly playing their best basketball remains to be seen. They have yet to win more than three straight. Aside from beating the Liberty at the beginning of the season as the Liberty struggled to put together the new pieces of their super-team, they haven’t beaten a top-three team.
The have home games coming up against the Liberty on Sunday and against the Sun in the regular-season finale Sept. 10. In between, they also face the Fever on the road and the Lynx at home.
And there’s more than the postseason on the line. If the Sky fail to make the playoffs, they send a lottery pick (with the potential of being the No. 1 overall pick) to the Wings.
NOTE: Vatansever said Friday that forward Alanna Smith (concussion protocol) won’t be available for Sunday’s game.
