The Chicago Sky held off a second half surge by the Minnesota Lynx Saturday afternoon in Chicago, and a 27-point performance by Ariel Atkins led the home squad to an 87-81 victory over the top team in the WNBA standings.
In her second game back from injury, and first back in the starting lineup, Kamilla Cardoso had 17 points and 15 rebounds while fellow big Angel Reese scored 19 points with 11 rebounds for the forward’s eighth double-double in a row.
The victory for Chicago (7-13) is the first win for the Sky over a team with better than a .500 record in the 2025 regular season.
With 42.9 seconds remaining, Rachel Banham put the game out of the reach of the Lynx (18-4). Minnesota focused their defense on Cardoso and Reese, so Banham exploited space inside and hit a running layup that put the Sky ahead by five points.
On the subsequent possession, Minnesota guard Courtney Williams went up for a three on a defensive switch, but the 6-foot-7 Cardoso blocked the 5-foot-8 guard’s attempt and gave possession back to the Sky.
The Sky used their size all game and outrebounded the Lynx 45-28 and scored 16 more points in the paint than the visitors.
Chicago led by as many as 15 points in the third quarter, but Minnesota trimmed it down to a six-point deficit at the end of the quarter and cut it to a single possession When Napheesa Collier nailed a 12-foot jump shot a minute into the fourth.
Collier led the Lynx with 26 points, while Kayla McBride scored 17 and Courtney Williams added 13. They were the only three players on the Lynx roster to hit double-digit scoring with only 11 points coming off the Lynx bench.
Contributing to their trouble, Saturday was the third road game for the Lynx in the span of four days and seventh game overall in 12 days to start July.
The two teams play in Chicago again on Monday night, the third game between the two teams in eight days.
–Field Level Media
