Veteran guard Courtney Vandersloot figures the Chicago Sky might need an extra boost to move past their latest narrow loss entering Wednesday’s visit from the Los Angeles Sparks.
Still harboring hopes for a playoff spot, host Chicago led Phoenix by seven points with 3:22 left on Monday before stumbling to a 106-101 loss.
“You score 101 points on your home floor, you’re supposed to win, and it didn’t go that way for us,” Vandersloot said. “Obviously, we know that we’re going to continue to do what we do, but this one hurts, and yeah, we’re feeling it, for sure.”
While Chicago (11-19) has won two of three at Wintrust Arena coming out of the All-Star break, the Sky like to think they could be on an even greater tear.
The team’s past three losses have come by a combined eight points. Kamilla Cardoso (16 points, 13 rebounds) and Vandersloot (16 points, 10 assists) posted double-doubles against Phoenix while DiJonai Carrington added 16 points.
Ultimately, Chicago was unable to overcome the late absence of leading scorer Sydney Taylor, who scored 14 points in 17 minutes before sustaining a left groin injury. She is listed as questionable for the Sparks game.
“We’ll evaluate to see where Sydney’s at and hopefully we’ll have her for LA,” Sky coach Tyler Marsh said.
Los Angeles (11-17) trails Washington by five games for the eighth and final postseason berth, but leads Chicago by one game.
Backed by double-doubles from Dearica Hamby (23 points, 10 rebounds) and Nneka Ogwumike (22 points, 10 boards), the Sparks stopped a six-game losing streak with Sunday’s 106-101 victory at Portland.
The Sparks lost five games by single digits during the skid, including the last two by four points apiece.
“We just keep chipping away,” Hamby said. “We talked about the last six games that we haven’t won them, but we were playing good basketball, and so we wanted to keep building off of that. And it carried over to this game and we were rewarded with a win.”
Hamby credited “being interchangeable” with Ogwumike for making the duo difficult to guard.
Starters Erica Wheeler, Ariel Atkins and Rae Burrell and reserve Jihyun Park added 12 points apiece for the Sparks.
The winner of Wednesday’s game will clinch the season series. Both teams secured comfortable home victories last month, with the Sparks prevailing by 15 on July 10 before the Sky responded with a 14-point victory one week later.
–Field Level Media
