MINNEAPOLIS — There is no respite in sight for the skidding Sky.
On Sunday, they came into Target Center looking to snap a five-game losing streak, but their 79-74 loss to the Lynx extended it to six games. Up next is a meeting with the reigning champion Aces on the road Tuesday.
“We’re still in [the playoffs],” Sky coach Teresa Weatherspoon said. “We still got to believe that we can make it. That we can do the right things to keep our heads above water. We want to be in the playoffs, and there’s things we have to do to get there.”
A good place to start would be limiting their turnovers.
Sunday was the third consecutive game the Sky gave up 20 or more points off of turnovers. The Lynx forced 21 turnovers, which they converted for 27 points.
Former Sky guard Courtney Williams led the Lynx with 22 points. Kayla McBride added 17 points and Napheesa Collier finished with 15.
Kamilla Cardoso recorded a career-high finishing with 22 points — 12 scored in the first quarter — and nine rebounds. The Sky outscored the Lynx 42-26 in the paint.
“The good thing is we were looking for her,” Weatherspoon said. “We wanted that ball to go in the painted area. That’s what we talk about. That’s who we are. Kamilla is a dominant big that’s very difficult to defend. Then when we’re making the deliberate actions to make sure we punch it down there into her, it was working for us greatly for us in the first half.”
Sunday was the Sky’s third consecutive game without their leading scorer Chennedy Carter who remains in health and safety protocols.
Carter did not travel to Minneapolis. Weatherspoon said she was unsure if Carter would meet the team in Las Vegas but added that it was a possibility.
Sunday’s loss came with more history for rookie Angel Reese.
Reese has spoken at length about the impact former Sky All-Star Sylvia Fowles has had on her career going back to her days at LSU. Reese broke the WNBA’s single-season rebounding record, passing Fowles, who finished the 2018 season with 404 rebounds. Fowles reached that number in 34 games. Reese reached 418 rebounds in 31 games.
She finished with 17 points — shooting 6-for-16 from the field — and 19 rebounds. It was her 24th double-double of the season. Reese said she didn’t speak to Fowles ahead of the game and didn’t consider the significance of breaking the record against Fowles’ former team amid the loss.
“It’s been great to have [Fowles] in my back pocket,” Reese said. “Knowing I can always talk to her about anything. Being able to be coached by the same coach [Bob Starkey] as her at LSU, that gave me a lot of insight.”
Starkey is a longtime assistant coach at LSU. He spent more than 20 years at the school from 1990-2011 on the Tigers’ men’s and women’s basketball staffs. He rejoined the program in 2022 to be Kim Mulkey’s associate head coach.
Sunday, Reese credited him for instilling a work ethic and touch around the basket that has contributed to her record-breaking rebounding in her rookie season.
“I know my motor,” Reese said. “[Rebounding] is something that I know I can always do. I knew it was going to translate right away and that’s something that a lot of players don’t want to do. A lot of people thing it’s because I get my own rebound, but statistically, it’s not.
Just being able to go down there, being able to bang and do things a lot of people don’t want to do.”