Last week, Angel Reese helped Chicago break their 7-game losing streak with a 92-78 win over LA Sparks. Her dominant display of 24 points helped bring back the Sky’s rhythm in the game. Moreover, her 12 boards kept the team strong, defensively. However, she would go on to incur a wrist injury, which ended her season at this crucial time.
Now that she is sidelined, the Sky is finding it difficult to cope. In today’s game against the Washington Mystics, they tumbled down like a house of cards and took a 31-point defeat at 89-58.
In the post-game presser, Kamilla Cardoso reasoned what turned out to be a bitter wake-up call. She spoke about how everyone was trying to share the ball but couldn’t keep it from being stolen which led to the Mystics making transitions and leading on scores.
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“We are competitors, we come here every day, we want to compete, and we want to win. So I honestly don’t have an answer for you, but this was embarrassing. So I really hope we figure out what was wrong and go back to the court tomorrow, practice, or do whatever we got to do and fix it for our next road game.” Although a tough game, Cardoso ended the interview by mentioning, “I did a great job today, didn’t I?”
But, she sure didn’t have the answer because the Sky failed to match up the energy Reese brought to the floor. They were slopping off, shooting just 36%, and turned the ball over 15 times.
The Mystics’ defense allowed a season-low 58 points that majorly comprised Chennedy Carter’s 16 points. To which, Kamilla Cardoso added 13 with 8 rebounds for the Sky and Isabelle Harrison brought 10 points and 8 rebounds before she fouled out late in the fourth quarter.
“This was embarrassing, so I really hope we figure out what was wrong.”
Kamilla Cardoso speaking to media after @chicagosky‘s 89-58 loss to the Mystics. Cardoso had 13 pts, 8 rebounds.@wachfox I @GamecockWBB pic.twitter.com/kzxtZjbeRQ
— amanda (@amanda_1815) September 12, 2024
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Without Angel Reese, can the Chicago Sky ever hope to compete at the top level?
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The Sky take on the mighty Minnesota Lynx next, who have been fairly dominant this season and even more so after the Olympic break. Leading the Western Conference, the Lynx won’t be easy on the Sky ranking 4th in the Eastern Conference.
Meanwhile, an injury update has flown from Angel Reese, reasoning why she chose to end her rookie season.
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Long 6 weeks for Angel Reese
Ending her season and leaving the Sky in a bad space, rookie Angel Reese is back with an update on her injury. Last week, she landed awkwardly on her hand and wrist after drawing a play, which resulted in a fracture in one of her wrists.
Although the fracture is hairline, she explained the severity of the issue and why she chose to undergo a season-ending correctional surgery. She said, “The risk of not having surgery — I could literally have arthritis at 22 years old. That wasn’t an option. The bone could crack, could shatter. Right now, it’s like a hairline (fracture). … This is a very hard place to heal because the blood flow is little to none. I’m getting surgery.”
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Post-procedure, Reese will be on a hard cast for 4 weeks and then a soft cast for the following 2, then she will be headed to rehab to recover.
While this continues, it has put the Sky in a tough spot. Facing Minnesota won’t be a piece of cake if the Sky don’t decode their defense over the weekend before the game. They have 4 more games left, 3 against the top-seeded teams and the Mystics and Atlanta Dream are closing in.
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Without Angel Reese, can the Chicago Sky ever hope to compete at the top level?