WNBA Chicago Sky

Postgame Notes: Chicago Sky 91, Seattle Storm 88

Published on July 17, 2016 under Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA)
Chicago Sky News Release


* Chicago kicked off the night with an 8-2 scoring run in the opening two-and-a-half minutes of the first quarter and a 6-0 rebounding run, as well. They continued their dominant start and made a 28-10 scoring run in the first eight minutes of the game. * Chicago out-rebounded Seattle 26-12 in the first half and ended the game with a 41-28 advantage on the boards. The Sky's starting lineup contributed 35 of the team's total rebounds. * The Sky made nine three-pointers in tonight's contest, including Elena Delle Donne's game-winning three with one second left. The nine made three-pointers were the most the team has made this season. In the first half, Chicago shot 6-of-9 (66.7%) from the three-point line. Additionally, Chicago shot its highest three-point percentage this season, shooting 69.2 percent from behind the arc. * Delle Donne recorded back-to-back games in which she scored more than 15 points in the first half. In Friday's game against Dallas, Delle Donne scored 16 points in the first two quarters. In tonight's game, she scored 19 points in the first half. * Courtney Vandersloot was 3-for-3 from behind the arc in the first quarter. She finished with 11 points. * Cappie Pondexter tied Shameka Christon for 12th all time in three-pointers made in the WNBA with 435. She is one three-pointer away from tying Lauren Jackson. * Cheyenne Parker had a career night as she achieved a career high in points (15), rebounds (10) and minutes played (31). Parker also recorded her first-ever double-double. Her previous records were both surpassed in the first half alone, and her double-double was achieved mid-way through the third quarter. * Season low for Chicago's opponent's points scored in the first half with 32; but, Seattle scored 55 in the second half, the most points allowed in a single half by the Sky this season. * Chicago's six three-pointers made in the first quarter tied the Sky record for most three-pointers made in a single quarter. * Tonight's contest saw Pondexter's first double-digit scoring performance in six games. She ended the game with 15 points off the bench. * In her 98th career game, Delle Donne passed the 2000-point mark and is the third-fastest player to reach the mark. She scored 35 points on 14-for-24 shooting from the field. Delle Donne was close to topping her season high of 38 points. * With injury scares for both Vandersloot and Parker in the third quarter, both players re-entered the game in the fourth. * Seattle closed a 25-point lead by Chicago in the second quarter by outscoring the visiting Sky 28-14 in the third quarter. Powered by Sue Bird's 14 points in the fourth quarter, the Storm tied the score in the final minute of the game. * Seattle got off to a slow start tonight, scoring only 14 points and gathering four rebounds in the first quarter. By the end of the half, the Storm was down 25 and gave up 16-second chance points to Chicago. * Breanna Stewart scored 22 points on 8-of-17 shooting. Tonight was her 11th-consecutive game hitting double-digits. * Bird scored 24 points on 9-of-16 shooting and 4-of-6 from the three-point arc, tying her season-high (at Connecticut 6/10/16). * Seattle managed to outscore Chicago 14-6 in fast break points, going 7-of-7, while Chicago went only 2-of-2. * The Storm outscored the Sky in both the third and fourth quarters, dropping 56 points in the second half. Seattle had its best fourth quarter scoring this season, shooting 12-of-17 for 70.6 percent. * Seattle marked a season-high eight blocks on the night (7 vs. Dallas 6/30); rookie Breanna Stewart posted a season-high five of those (4, 3 times). * Krystal Thomas recorded a season-high seven points off the bench, going 3-of-3 from the floor and grabbed a season-high six rebounds. * Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis tallied 12 points for the second game in a row, which ties her season-high (Washington, 7/15). She shot 55.5 percent from the floor compared to 36.4 percent in her previous showing.

QUOTES

Chicago Sky Head Coach and General Manager Pokey Chatman

(On the game...)

"It was entertaining for the fans. I say that tongue in cheek. I credit Seattle for making a valiant comeback, but also not lost in that is we had a different starting lineup. That group came out and jumped on them really early and gave us that cushion. I think that was important. There were a couple of key areas that we emphasized in preparing for this game. We thought we could rebound...to the tune of 21 second-chance points. I think when all the dust settles, that's where you won the game. And also with Elena Delle Donne. Not just the last shot, but I just told Elena she was excellent in her decision making - when to attack the basket, when to pull up for the mid-range and when to spot up. Sometimes when you're tired you don't think, but I thought she played extremely well on both ends of the floor. We had a bit of foul trouble and some people going down with injuries. At the end of the day, I told them no one will remember the score in seven days, it'll be a win and we'll take it. We'll look at why we're so inconsistent defensively and try to continue some of this momentum for Tuesday at Phoenix."

(On if she told Elena Delle Donne to take over at the end of the game...)

"Great players, who are also unselfish, you play to them, you play through them and you play off of them. The play was for Elena to get the ball and make a read. I told her, if you catch it way out and want to go one-on-one, just get some space. They've seen her do that and they trust her. At that point, the adrenaline is pumping and how many did she score? If felt like 40. But also she was defending some pretty damn good players at the other end. I thought we managed things towards the end ... and I didn't see bad body language when Seattle was making a run. They connected to the message and like I said, we're happy to get a win. We've been on the struggle bus - the struggle is real - so we're trying to gain a little momentum as we finish up this road swing."

Chicago Sky Forward Elena Delle Donne | 35 points, 11 rebounds

(On taking the game-winning shot...)

"I knew the play was going to get me in that position and I wanted to make sure the clock went down enough where they wouldn't be able to run a play if we scored or if we missed. I just felt confident, was able to get into a rhythm, let it fly and it felt great to see it go in because we really needed that win."

(On Lauren Jackson and their similarities and differences...)

"I always looked up to her as a player. Her versatility was something that I admired so I would say that's our similarity right there - being tall, but also being able to shoot the ball and having some guard skills. Differences ... I would say she was a little bit more of a post and I'm a little bit more outside. It was definitely an incredible career and I was excited for her to get her jersey retired - seems like a no-brainer. But she's an amazing player and truly someone who inspired me."

(On Breanna Stewart, the comparisons there and any added motivation for this game because of that...)

"It's funny, everybody wants to compare the versatile players - Candace Parker, Lauren Jackson, myself, Stewie - all incredible players and all different in our own ways. It's really great for the league and fun to watch. This game, more than anything, we just needed a win. We're trying to get to .500 before the Olympic break so I was really motivated to come in here. They have a great crowd and we knew they were going to go on a run, but we needed to come away with a win."

(On what the team needs to improve upon going forward...)

"Our defense has been inconsistent. As you can see, we had a great first half and then gave up 56 points in the second half. Inconsistencies on defense are our biggest struggle and something we have to figure out or we'll continue to struggle because defense is what wins games." (On what the media can do to get more attention on the WNBA) "It's all fun talking about on-court stuff, but it's more interesting and you might grab a new fan if you tell a story outside of basketball, what a player is into and their interests or something that's inspiring about them. I always think it's important to talk about the basketball, but also get people to know about the person."

Seattle Storm Head Coach Jenny Boucek

(On what changed in the second half...)

"We didn't change a single thing technically and I told them at half time I couldn't even adjust anything technically until we started getting the energy that we needed to play with. We started the game really flat and let them get comfortable, let them get hot, and then we had a huge hole that we had to try to dig our way out of and I was pleased with the effort on the comeback, it was a heck of a comeback but we were unfortunately in a huge hole because of our anemic start, in particular defensively."

(On her perspective of Chicago's last play...)

"Isolation for Delle Donne. We were ready to run at her on any one-on-one penetration but she just rocked Stewart back and pulled. But Stewart will learn from that, she doesn't usually let something happen twice and I think she'll learn a lot from that. But it wasn't about that play. When you're at the end of a close game it comes down to players making plays, that's just what it comes down to. If we had taken care of our business early the way that we needed to then I don't know that it would have come down to one shot."

Seattle Storm Guard Sue Bird | 24 points, 4 assists

(On adjustments made after half...)

"It wasn't really about adjustments, they came out on fire. It felt like they didn't miss there for a while. It's up to us not to get off to slow starts like that, not to dig ourselves into a hole because, as far as the comeback goes, that was just us playing our game and in the beginning we didn't."

(On rebounding...)

"Sometimes this league is extremely balanced and teams separate themselves like LA and sometimes teams separate themselves on the other side of it. But, for the most part, any night, any day, anybody can win. It's really about the team that comes out, has the energy, has the focus, and plays hard. That's really what the difference is. It comes down to rebounds and loose balls and not necessarily shots made or missed. I think today they just came out with a lot more energy than us and with that they were able to kind of gain momentum and make that huge lead."

Seattle Storm Forward Breanna Stewart| 22 points, 8 rebounds & 6 assists

(On the difference between first and second half...)

"We were down thirty and we started off very slow and they made us pay for it in every way possible. I think that being able to come back from that was huge but if we would have never got ourselves in that hole what would have happened? What would have been the outcome of the game then -

(On her frustrations in first half...)

"It was incredibly frustrating. I thought offensively we were getting good looks but our defense was not where it needed to be. They got a lot of offensive rebounds, second-chance points, and we knew that wasn't what it was supposed to be." (On being a part of what would have been the greatest comeback in league history) "It was a lot of fun. It was fun to compete like that and that's what we want to do every single night. Not be down by thirty to compete, but to be in the game at the end."

Score by Quarter

Chicago (10-12) 36 20 14 21 91

Seattle (8-14) 14 18 28 28 88

Check out the Chicago Sky Statistics

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



Women's National Basketball Association Stories from July 17, 2016


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central