Sky-Storm Preview
While the Seattle Storm have been rolling right along inside the "Wubble," the Chicago Sky have not been too bad themselves. The Storm aim to extend their winning streak to five games when they face the Sky on Monday night at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla. Healthy and focused on the matter at hand, Seattle (6-1) is once again among the WNBA elite after going a modest 18-16 without Sue Bird and Breanna Stewart last season. Both are back for 2020, though Bird (10.7 points per game, 3.3 assists per game) is dealing with a knee bruise that has her listed as day to day by the club. Even though Bird missed her fourth game Saturday, the Storm prevailed 74-68 against the surging Phoenix Mercury. Jewell Loyd (13.9 ppg) had 20 points and Stewart (19.4 ppg, 8.3 rebounds per game) added 15 as Seattle used a 23-7 second-quarter advantage to stay hot. The Storm's lone loss of the season came to reigning league champion Washington back on July 30. At the moment, they're squad that's playing with plenty of confidence that it has shown in recent years as one of the WNBA's best. "For us, we just wanted to make sure that every game we were getting better, and give ourselves, and put ourselves in positions to win," forward Alysha Clark told the Storm's official website. "We were able to do that so far'So, finding ways to win right now is important and we hope we can keep that going." The challenge in doing so could be difficult come Monday. Chicago (5-2) was one of the trendy preseason picks to potentially challenge for a WNBA title and, at the moment, is playing like a serious contender. The Sky won for the third time in four games, 100-92 over Connecticut on Saturday. Allie Quigley (13.9 ppg) had 22 points and Cheyenne Parker (13.9 ppg) scored 20 as they shot 55.2 percent to handle the Sun. "We just stuck to our game plan, and we stayed focused," Sky coach James Wade told the Chicago Sun-Times. "You didn't see any distractions. That was like a point of concentration for the team, for myself. "It's a process for us, but we'll get it right." Entering Sunday, Chicago led the league averaging 88.7 points and shooting 49 percent on the season. The Sky took two of three from the then-shorthanded Storm during the 2019 season. |