Game 31 Put to Bed Wed, August 28 8:00pm EDT Washington @ Chicago
Starting: WASH: Atkins, Dolson, Edwards, Sykes, Vanloo (Austin ankle injury) CHI: Allen, Banham, Cardoso, Onyenwere, Reese (Carter illness, Williams knee)
1st Quarter The Mystics are looking good in red. Rookie Kamilla Cardoso immediately scores over Stef. After a veeeeery quiet game against the Storm, Ariel goes for the middie right away, then hits a 3 on the next possession. The energy is a touch chill, pace slow. OB is playing defense tonight more than the Sky. Banham does her thing from 3. Kamilla blocks Aaliyah, but we get a hand in the passing lane and find JVL for 3. Sykes snakes another pass and we eventually find Stef underneath. Karlie Samuelson is suited up tonight. The Sky have 5 turns in the first 5 mins. I mean, we have some early too. Nice jumper for Aaliyah. Karlie is in the game and wearing a heavy-duty knee brace. Stef for 3! Oof, the turns are racking up. Moriah Jefferson answers. Engstler and-1. Sika Koné is getting her first minutes with DC, she was aqcuired in the Hines-Allen trade. And she scores! Welcome to the Mystics, Sika! Wow, Diamond DeShields just put the sky in Sky. Karlie grabs a steal, but Sika gets her shot blocked. We had a decent lead but gave it away off some less productive minutes from our bench. 22-20.
2nd Quarter The Sky come out with a different defensive look that we unlock with good passing, finding Engstler for 3. Nice play from our newest members, Sug to a hesitating Sika underneath. Diamond hits a 3, but Earl answers right back. Now Sug hits a jumper. The shooting is going great this quarter and already our lead is back to 7. Engstler strips the ball and finds Earl for another 3. Now Engstler 3. Engstler gets another rip away but this time Cardoso swats it out of Aaliyah's hands. The lead is 10 for DC. Make that 12 as the Sky lose track of Ariel. Our offense is a little glitchy. Onyenwere makes a tough spinning bucket. Stef is pissed after getting called when the contact was clearly initiated by Cardoso. Slim rockets to the rim the other way. Earl shoots a wedgie and Cardoso knocks it down with ease. A few fouls on the Sky are allowing them to creep closer. 44-39.
3rd Quarter Onyenwere gets 4 too-easy points to start the second half. Now we run a sweet play for a cutting Stef. Aaliyah gets into a passing lane on D and we pass around then find Stef again after a drive. We try it one more time and Stef gets to the line. Onyenwere for 3 and it's Michaela v Stef this half. Seriously, it has been 5 minutes and they are the only ones who can find the net, Stef 8 to Michaela's 9. 7 minutes now, 8-11. Angel Reese finally makes a free throw to break the spell. The Sky take the lead. We can't seem to score now that Stef has sat. Shatori comes thru right as I say that. This has been a terrible quarter for DC. 54-58.
4th Quarter Karlie goes for 3 to open the 4th. Eric has been running really inconsistent lines and in my opinion sitting Ariel way too much, and Slim too. Shatori steals and runs it out. Dana drills a 3. I am confused why Aaliyah is not playing more minutes. Just like that she checks in. Things are not going well. Ariel and Shatori need to start shooting. 61-68. Slim takes an unnecessarily difficult shot but Aaliyah is there to clean it up. Ariel's shot is in and out. Stef cleans up after JVL to make it a single possession game. The first half of the game was decently fun, lots of turns but plenty of good shots. This half has been pretty garbage. Ariel finds the gaps to take it in herself for a tie game. Aaliyah picks a pass and runs it out for the lead. Timeout with 1:24 remaining. The Sky apparently have 22 turnovers so far, lots of live ball ones, too. How is this a close game? Stef pitches it to a streaking Sykes for 2. Cardoso gets 2. She shoots with her far arm which makes it so tough to defend. Chicago get a rebound, but we force a shot clock violation! That leaves 8 seconds to protect out 2-point lead. T-Spoon is remarkably calm. JVL is fouled and makes the first, the second rims out, and Slim gets the rebound. She misses her own foul shot. C'mon Slim. Ok she gets the second. 3.2 on the clock I think we can call it. 74-70 final. Don't watch this one.
