Sky’s Loss Hardly an Award-Winning Performance

Chicago Sky forward Swin Cash won the WNBA’s Kim Perrot Sportsmanship Award (actually sharing the honor with Indiana’s Tamika Catchings ), center Sylvia Fowles won Defensive Player of the Year for the second time in her career and forward Elena Delle Donne won Rookie of the Year. They were honored before the team’s postseason debut Friday (Sept. 20) against the Indiana Fever at Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Ill.

Swin Cash (left), Sylvia Fowles and Elena Delle Donne attend a press conference before Game 1 of their WNBA first-round series against Indiana.

Very impressive.

And then the Sky lost 85-72 in the best-of-three series.

Less than impressive.

Unless you are viewing things from a Fever perspective. Game 2 is Sunday afternoon in Indianapolis.

The Sky is winless in WNBA postseason competition. Of course, this is the first time the Sky — which went 24-10 during the regular season to win the Eastern Conference — has played a playoff game. The Fever — which went 16-18 during the regular season but beat the Sky three times in four meetings — is the defending WNBA champion. And played like it.

The Fever turned a 25-22 first-quarter lead into a 50-37 halftime advantage and never led by less than 10 points after taking a 39-29 lead on a Layshia Clarendon three-point. Indiana was 10-of-16 from three-point range and 32-of-63 (50.8 percent) overall.

“It’s been a lot of game where we had to win shooting low 40s, 30s, but tonight we knocked down our open shots and we really battled on the boards,” Fever coach Lin Dunn said. We’re just thrilled to come in here, little short-handed and steal this game because the Chicago Sky is awfully good. We got great help. We had five people in double figures, which is huge for us. We got great help from our bench. We brought Karima [Christmas] with us because she had a great night. She played the three, the four, helped defend the three and the four and just really came up big for us.

“It’s a great win for us, but we know to never get too high on a win and never get too low on a loss. We got to be prepared for their best shot on Sunday.”

Shavonte Zellous led the Pacers with 20 points (3-of-3 three-pointers. Briann January (3-of-4 threes) and Christmas (2-of-2 threes) each had 16, Eriana Larkins 12 points and a game-high 11 rebounds and Cathings 11 points.

“They were great shooting the basketball tonight, especially from three,” Sky coach Pokey Chatman said. “But there is a difference with shooting contested shots and wide-open shots, and I give them credit for knocking them down. Please don’t misquote me on that, but sometimes when it is like shooting practice and no one’s guarding you, there’s a higher ratio for it to go in. So I think for us we’ve got to stay connected to our plan so we don’t get in rotation or over-help and let those players continue their hot shooting.”

Delle Donne had 16 of her team-high 20 points in the first half. Epiphanny Prince scored 19, including 10 in the third quarter. Fowles had 16 points and 10 rebounds.

“We just have to do a better job on the defensive end,” Cash said. “They shot ridiculous numbers from the three-point line and uncontested shots. We understand that can’t happen we just have to be more aggressive, and also we got out-rebounded [32-21].

“They’re the champs for a reason. Obviously they won the championship last year. So they have that experience. But, I think at the end of the day, what it comes down to is executing the game plan. I don’t think we did a great job of that tonight.”

“We weren’t able to get into the flow [offensively],” Delle Donne said. “I do think that has a lot to do with our defense, because when we’re playing great defense, getting stops, we’re able to run in transition and get the matchups we want. When our defense isn’t clicking, we tend to struggle offensively.

“Obviously, I have to attack more the entire game, not just the first and second quarter. So that’s something I need to clean up.”

Well, it’s either that or clean out the lockers for the season.

Some video from before and after the game:

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