Liberty-Sky Preview
The Chicago Sky's current home winning streak began by beating the New York Liberty last month. They'll look to extend that run with a similar result.
Aiming for a fourth straight home win, the Sky look to complete a regular-season sweep of the reeling Liberty on Wednesday night.
Chicago (12-9) won for the fourth time in five games Saturday after overcoming a 10-point first-half deficit to beat the Dream 87-75 on the road. Stefanie Dolson scored 16 points, Courtney Vandersloot added 13 with nine assists and Diamond DeShields scored 12 with 12 boards as the Sky hit 11 3-pointers and shot 49.3 percent overall.
Though Chicago has built a nice rhythm of late, it's far from a polished product as far as its coach is concerned.
"You can't play around with teams in the league," first-year coach and general manager James Wade told the Sky's official website. "The outcome, it was good, but we have to find solutions to the problem of how we started, and that's the challenging part. If we start the way we finish, then I think we'll be fine."
Chicago's current 5-1 stretch began with a 99-83 home win over New York (8-13) on July 12. That also kicked off the Sky's second three-game home winning streak of 2019. Vandersloot has totaled 42 points and 18 assists in Chicago's first two wins over the Liberty this season. She dropped 25 on New York during a 91-83 road victory June 19.
The Liberty will not only try to avoid being swept at the hands of the Sky, but also look to keep from matching a season high with their fourth consecutive overall defeat, and being saddled with a fifth straight road setback. Tina Charles had 20 points with 10 rebounds, but New York fell for the sixth time in seven games Sunday, 94-79 at Connecticut.
Kate Smith's club committed 17 turnovers, one game after turning the ball over 21 times in an 87-64 loss at Dallas.
"We can't give up 37 points off turnovers," Smith said after Sunday's loss. "That's 67 points (allowed off turnovers) in two games."
Charles has totaled 29 points in two games versus Chicago this season, while fellow New York All-Star Kia Nurse has combined for 32 points against the Sky.
