ARLINGTON, Texas — Is the Kamilla Cardoso Bucket-Getting Experience officially upon us?
Seeing last year’s No. 3 overall pick lead the way Thursday at the United Center with a career-high 23 points in the Sky’s first win of the season was exciting. The words “more of that, please” definitely came to mind heading into a rematch against the Wings in their neck of the woods.
Alas, the point total probably was a mirage.
Cardoso attempted 13 field goals in the first meeting, a number that looks pretty modest until you rummage through the game logs and realize it’s one off her career high. And get this: The 23 points were her high in any game since the sixth one of her freshman season at South Carolina when she went 10-for-11 from the field and scored 24 against Syracuse.
As if to emphasize the first meeting was an outlier, she went 0-for-1 with three fouls in only seven first-half minutes Saturday. She finished 1-for-5 in 15 minutes.
As a college senior, Cardoso averaged all of 10.1 field goals. As a WNBA rookie, she reached double-digit attempts a mere six times in 32 games and reached the 20-point mark only once.
This is a 6-7 player who seemingly has the post presence to shoot and score a lot more than she does. On the other hand, she also says outright that she prefers passing to shooting. Guess we should believe her.
“My priority is to win the games,” she said. “It doesn’t matter if I have zero points, 50 points, as long as we win. That’s all I care about. I don’t think about how many shots I [take].”
Coach Tyler Marsh sure liked seeing that 23, though.
“She’s a dominating presence in there,” Marsh said. “I think when she’s locked into that side [of the court], she can be a force consistently. That’s where we want her to get to.”
But Marsh isn’t necessarily looking for Cardoso to assert herself with a bunch more shots. She’s not just a willing passer out of the post, but a talented one, and that’s good for everybody.
“She does so much, not just for her own ability to score inside,” Marsh said, “but she does so much for our offense with her ability to facilitate, as well.”
Ariel view
When Dallas-area native Ariel Atkins was a young baller, she wouldn’t have believed she’d be a pro someday playing before an announced sellout crowd of 7,000-plus right down the road from home.
“Not even in the slightest,” she said.
But the Wings moved here from Detroit before the 2016 season, and that summer, Atkins — in between her sophomore and junior years at Texas — was in the seats at College Park Center when her favorite players came through. She watched Maya Moore and the Lynx win in overtime. She watched the Fever’s Tamika Catchings win a close one in the only visit of her final season.
For Atkins, playing here herself — a bunch of times with the Mystics and now once with the Sky — never gets old. Seeing approximately a dozen family members in the crowd this time was a nice bonus.
“No, I could not have imagined this,” she said, “but it’s truly special to me to have a WNBA team in my hometown.”
A real Paige turnout
About that “announced sellout crowd” — with No. 1 overall pick Paige Bueckers in concussion protocol and missing the first of what will be at least two games, the joint was right around three-quarters full. And that’s going by the highly scientific out-of-towner’s eyeball test.