\n<\/p>\n
The Sky<\/a> looked on track for a second straight win over the first-place Lynx \u2014 until Ariel Atkins left the game<\/a> with a leg injury.<\/p>\n She didn\u2019t return after halftime, and the wheels fell off soon after. The Sky gave up 12 threes and turned it over 19 times in a 91-78 loss Monday night at Wintrust Arena.<\/p>\n \u201c[The Lynx] maximized off everything,\u201d Angel Reese said of the turnovers. \u201cThey\u2019re the No. 1 team for a reason.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite the loss, the overall trend over the past eight games is positive \u2014 a 4-4 stretch that included a signature win over the Lynx on Saturday.<\/p>\n The offense has been clicking. Reese is averaging a double-double, and the Sky have been the best three-point shooting team in the league during that span. Their spacing, ball movement and pace have all improved.<\/p>\n Maybe even more important: the defense had started to stabilize.<\/p>\n Early in the season, the Sky were one of the worst defensive teams in the league, in part because effort and execution weren\u2019t always meeting the bar. The coaching staff made that clear.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not that they were going out there and not trying,\u201d assistant coach Tanisha Wright told the Sun-Times. \u201cIt\u2019s a matter of like, \u2018OK, you\u2019re trying, but you\u2019re also not doing it in the way that we designed it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n In recent weeks, though, the Sky climbed into the top half of the league in defensive rating.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t just about playing harder. It was about playing smarter within the scheme.<\/p>\n Ball-screen coverages. Rotations after breakdowns. Locking into the scout. Those were the technical pieces Wright \u2014 a defensive guru \u2014 keyed in on.<\/p>\n But from the outside, the easiest sign of improvement was the Sky\u2019s three-point defense.<\/p>\n In May, they were giving up 11 threes a game. That number dropped substantially \u2014 until Monday. The Lynx hit six in the first quarter alone and finished with 12.<\/p>\n \u201cWe needed to run them off the line,\u201d Reese said. \u201cThe three-point line is what they do.\u201d<\/p>\n Losing Atkins \u2014 whose ball pressure is a cornerstone of the Sky\u2019s perimeter defense \u2014 didn\u2019t help. Without her, the Sky struggled to contain the Lynx\u2019s Big 3. Napheesa Collier finished with 29 points, including 11-for-11 from the line. Kayla McBride had 17. Courtney Williams added 18.<\/p>\n Still, there are worse things than giving up 91 points to the league\u2019s best offense.<\/p>\n Postgame, Reese felt ready to bounce back.<\/p>\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t something spectacular that they ran that we couldn\u2019t stop,\u201d Reese said. \u201cIt was just that we didn\u2019t get back in transition. We fouled them a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n Fixable issues, but they can\u2019t let them spiral. Especially not with another tough stretch of games on the horizon.<\/p>\n At 7-14, the Sky sit in 10th place. But they\u2019re only a couple of games out of the playoff picture. And they\u2019ve shown real progress, with that win Saturday standing as their clearest breakthrough yet.<\/p>\n Asked where the team is trending, Wright stretched out her arm like an airplane.<\/p>\n \u201cYou want to be a team that\u2019s ascending at this time of the year,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd we are a team that\u2019s ascending.\u201d<\/p>\n That was true \u2014 until the Atkins injury. She\u2019s their leading scorer and a top defender, and they won\u2019t get very far without her. Head coach Tyler Marsh said postgame that she\u2019s still being diagnosed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n