For weeks, the Sky haven’t looked like the fiery, defensive-minded team that started the WNBA season 5-3.
But that’s what could happen after the dust settles on a new season. Teams’ identities fall into place while others’ fall apart, and the Sky have joined the latter group. It’s not just that they have a five-game losing streak going back to June 9. It’s the way they’re losing games. They’ve shown stretches of diminished effort and energy that signals Sky coach/general manager James Wade’s rebuilt roster has bigger issues than its lack of cohesion and continuity.
“Our mindset is not very altruistic,” Wade said Thursday. “We’re not playing selfless. We’re shooting bad shots, and we’re not working their defense.”
Wade was talking about his team’s performance in a loss that night to the Mystics, but this ineffective, individually led style of play has developed since the loss to the Sparks on June 9.
Their offensive rating has hovered between 11th and ninth in the league all season. Floor spacing and ball movement are two of Wade’s concerns. The Sky seem to have lost whatever sense of execution they had on that end of the floor. Stagnancy is leading to inefficient shooting.
“[The Mystics] switched on us, and we just raised up and shot over the top of them,” Wade said. “Just gave them what they wanted, and that’s no recipe for success, even if you’re making those shots.
“It’s throughout our roster. It’s contagious. Who’s going to drive it and collapse the defense and move it?”
Wade has continued to reference the Sky’s seven-game losing streak in 2021, which they eventually flipped to a seven-game winning streak en route to the franchise’s first WNBA title.
But there are three notable absences: Candace Parker, Courtney Vandersloot and Allie Quigley. This team lacks the experience and leadership those veterans provided to navigate a slump successfully.
Now is the moment for Kahleah Copper to apply what she learned about leadership from her former teammates.
“Everyone didn’t experience [the 2021 losing streak,]” Copper said. “For us to put it all together, to see one win is where we’ll find it. It comes down to what we’re going to hang our [hats] on and being disciplined. Everybody wants it. It’s just about making that sacrifice for everybody to be successful.”
From the onset of the season, the Sky have said they will hang their hats on defense, and they did for the first two weeks. But since then, they’ve dropped from the third-best defensive team in the league to the 11th.
Sunday’s game against the Sun, the team with the third-best net rating in the league, has the potential to get ugly quickly. Even without Brionna Jones, who was ruled out for the remainder of the season Saturday after tearing her Achilles, the Sun boast the third-best defense, anchored by Alyssa Thomas.
“You could look at us at the beginning of the season, and it’s not the same team,” Wade said. “It doesn’t matter the personnel. It’s the spirit that you play with, the enjoyment, the stuff that you need to actually go the extra mile. Right now, we played like a defeated ballclub.
“We’ll get through it. I’m confident in that.”
