Sloot is the New Chicago Sky All-Time Scoring Leader

[ZagDad84]

For those who are not watching the Seahawks,

The Sky's final home game is Sunday at 3:00 PM PST and is to be shown on CBS Sports Network.

Hopefully the Sky get their act together against lowly Indiana before the 1-game playoffs begin.

Seattle, with their hold on victory against Phoenix has hung on to the 4th seed, so they get a bye into the quarterfinals and a couple of more days for Breanna Stewart's ankle to heal. Go Storm.

Three teams essentially tied for 8th going into the last game of the season. Washington Mystics hold 8th position and the LA Sparks hold down 9th both with 12-19 records. The NY Liberty are at 10th with a 12-20 record with their season complete. Washington plays at home against the #3 Minnesota Lynx (noon on ESPN3), while the LA Sparks play on the road against #7 Dallas Wings (2:00 PM PST on NBA TV).

In any case, #6 (Chicago Sky) has to win to be at 0.500 for the season. No matter who ends up in 8th, 7th and 8th place teams will end up with losing records and will still make the playoffs.

ZagDad

[seacatfan]

Wow, first Washington and then LA failed to win a game that would've given them a playoff berth. NY backs into the playoffs having gone 2-9 since the Olympics break. Truly nobody wanted that #8 seed. Pathetic playoff race. Celebrate mediocrity...only I wouldn't even call it mediocre.

[seacatfan]

What's going on w/ Sloot? Another unproductive game so far, about midway thru Q3. And the Sky are actually trailing the league worst Fever at this point.

[seacatfan]

About half of the games didn't matter today, while the others were settling the last team into the playoffs and Minnesota trying to move up to the #3 seed (they did).

So while it had no effect on playoff seedings, and both teams rested their starters quite a bit, Las Vegas vs. Phoenix was interesting. Mercury were bombing away from 3 in the first half (10-19), cooled off in the 2nd half but still led almost the entire game. Were up 8 w/ a bit under 3 minutes left. Plum shook off what had been a subpar game and scored 13 points in the last 5 minutes to lead a comeback win. With that I think she absolutely has to be the 6th player of the year, and seriously in contention for most improved and comeback player. Despite not starting a single game and being on a star studded team, she finished second in scoring for the Aces at 14.8, behind only Wilson.

[seacatfan]

Sky went on a run to end Q3. Sloot got a LONG rest in the 2nd half, only played 17 minutes. Finished w/ 2 pts and 5 assists. I hope she gets back to form for the playoffs. I believe she finished the season w/ 275 assists and now up to 2180 for her career.

DeShields went off for 30 points (13-16 FTs).

[ZagDad84]

Nothing really for the Sky to gain by playing their starters today. Only benefit to winning the game is a 0.500 record and a rare win at home which have been hard to come by this year.

Copper was the only starter to play 27 minutes. All other Sky starters played 23 or fewer minutes today. The Sky reserves really picked up the slack today with DeShields (30), NJdour-Fall (12) and Evans (8) scoring 50 of the Sky's 98 points. The Sky subs shot 16-29 (55.2%) overall, 5-10 (50%) from long range, and took 22 of the Sky's 24 free throws making 17 of the 22 free throws.

Sloot ended up leading the NBA in total assists and assists per game (8.7) for the 6th time in her career ahead of Natasha Cloud (6.4) and Sabrina Ionescu (6.1). Sloot (53) dropped to #3 in steals for the season behind Brittney Sykes (56) and Sylvia Fowles (54).

With Washington and the LA Sparks both losing today, the idle NY Liberty lucked into the final playoff spot.

First round playoffs are to be held Thursday, September 23, 2021.

- Dallas will play at Chicago at 5:00 PM PST and be aired on ESPN2
- New York will play at Phoenix at 7:00 PM PST and be aired on ESPN2.

ZagDad

[ZagDad84]

Maybe the last chance to watch Sloot for this year.

Chicago vs Dallas in round one playoff game starts at 5:00 PM PST on ESPN2.

Here is a game preview from the Swish Appeal: https://www.swishappeal.com/wnba/202...le-vandersloot

Here are some playoff predictions by the ESPNW writers for the WNBA Playoffs: https://www.espn.com/wnba/story/_/id...s-championship

ZagDad

[seacatfan]

Sky look they aren't ready to be done yet. Very good start, up 19-9. A couple sweet dishes from Sloot. Copper is looking unstoppable, Parker is active and productive.

[seacatfan]

Oof. Sky was up as much as 37-16 in Q2. Wheels have come off the bus since. Energy level disappeared. Now clinging to a 3 point lead early in Q4. After a great start Parker has gone M.I.A. Team just standing around taking turns jacking up 3's, and none of them are going in (3-19). Just terrible offense they're running. If they lose this game, they very much earned it.

[seacatfan]

Sky finally quit taking terrible shots and built the lead back up a bit. Dallas was still hanging around, but Sloot totally took over to close out the game. Scored 9 straight for Chicago as they went back up 15. She finished w/ 17 pts/8 reb/6 assists.

[ZagDad84]

Sloot erupts for 11 points in the 4th quarter to put away Dallas.

Sloot finishes the game with 17 points, 6 assists, 8 rebounds. Leading scorer for the Sky was Copper with 23 points and the leading assist was Parker with 7.

Sky did not shoot great at 45.2% overall (not bad) but shot only 19% from 3 (really bad). Chicago did what they needed to do which was out rebounded the Wings 47-35 and limited their turnovers to only 12.

Not a great game, but a complete game and they are mov'in on to the second round.

Have to wait until the NY Liberty and Phoenix game is competed to see who the Sky will play in the next round. The Sky are 1-1 against Minnesota and 3-0 against Seattle.

ZagDad

[seacatfan]

Phoenix barely survives against a very game New York squad, so Sky will play @ Minnesota next (on Sunday).

[ZagDad84]

Seattle plays at Minnesota at 2:00 PM PST on Sunday, on ESPN2.

Phoenix plays at Seattle at 12:00 on Sunday on ABC.

Interesting the West Coast game is held first and the Mid-West game follows.

ZagDad

[ZagDad84]

Preview of Sunday's Sky vs. Lynx game by CBS Sports.

Link: https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/mor...Ao?li=BB15ms5q

ZagDad

[seacatfan]

Seattle-Phoenix went OT, so I missed most of Q1. Now approaching halftime, Sky up by 2. Copper and DeShields have been effective.


The Storm were without Bird, and Loyd was a brutal 5-24 from the floor, yet the game still went to OT. I gotta think Phoenix is gonna get killed in the next round. Damn lucky to win 2 games in a row in games they should've cruised in.

edit--heavy speculation Bird or Taurasi or both might be calling it a career after this season