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The Chicago Sky plays the biggest postseason game in franchise history on Friday. OK, so it’s the first postseason game for the WNBA team that began in 2006. Anyway, the first-round opponent is the Indiana Fever, the defending champion that defeated the Sky in three of the teams’ four meetings this season.
If the WNBA wants to feature Selena Gomez in a video, we might as well run her photo.
Game 1 in the best-of-three series is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Ill.
The Eastern Conference champion Sky (24-10) does have homecourt advantage. Which should mean something.
What homecourt advantage meant Thursday in the league’s first two playoffs games? Not much for the Atlanta Dream and Los Angeles Sparks. Both lost. The Washington Mystics defeated the Dream 71-56, while the Phoenix Mercury beat the Sparks 86-75.
The Sparks feature Candace Parker, who Thursday won her second WNBA MVP award.
The Sky features Elena Delle Donne, who Friday is expected to pick up the league’s Rookie of the Year award before the game. If she doesn’t, will be the biggest upset in the WNBA’s existence. She won all four rookie of the month awards. The No. 2 pick in the draft, Delle Donne averaged 18.1 points and 5.6 rebounds per game. She shot 93 percent from the foul line and 44 percent from three-point range.
If it’s any consolation to Sky fans, Delle Donne did finish third in MVP voting (Minnesota’s Maya Moore was second) to become the second rookie in the last 10 years to finish that high in balloting (Parker won MVP as a rookie in 2008).
The Fever (16-18) features former MVP Tameka Catchings and has Katie Douglas, who was out for much of the season with a back injury, back in the lineup. What the Fever does not have is a true center who can battle the Sky’s Sylvia Fowles, who led the league in field-goal percentage (.586) and rebounds (11.5).
Indiana rested Catchings in a season-ending loss that left the Fever the No. 4 seed. Whether that was the matchup that Indiana coach Lin Dunn wanted is open to speculation. The reality is the Sky would have to face the Fever at some point in the playoffs. Might as well get it out of the way.
Indiana does have postseason experience — not to mention success; the Sky has forward Swin Cash, who has played on WNBA champions with Detroit and Seattle.
Something says experience is nice. Talent is nicer. Parlaying that talent into a cohesive unit is even nicer. Anyone expecting the opposing players to be nice to one another during the game likely will be disappointed.
Some video from Sky practice Wednesday:
And something not from practice:
Here is where to go for a daily dose of non-gratuitous video (thanks to the endless efforts of the editorial and video departments at elliottharris.com and their dandy definition of “gratuitous”):
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