The Sky had a nice long film session to start practice Monday.
Coming off two straight losses at home, coach Tyler Marsh had plenty of material to work with.
Like all those missed shots.
The Sky (3-3) are struggling to shoot, hitting 41.6% from the field and 27.1% from three-point range, both near the bottom of the WNBA. Marsh usually traces problems on offense back to ball movement, which he has seen slow down since the Sky’s 3-1 start on the road.
“I think over the course of the first several games, we were really good at that, and we’ve gotten stagnant over the last couple,” Marsh said. “It hasn’t been for long durations, but it’s been at important moments.”
Marsh knows quick shots and iso-lation plays won’t turn the offense around, especially now that leading scorer and shot creator Rickea Jackson is out for the season after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee.
But some of the shooting woes were predictable given the roster. The Sky added many great downhill drivers this past offseason, but few sharpshooters. Their top free-agent addition, Skylar Diggins, is a perfect example. She can blow by defenders with her speed and skill set, but she’s only a career 41.9% shooter and is shooting 39% to start the year.
Marsh, of course, doesn’t believe the Sky are doomed to poor percentages. He thinks his system can generate clean looks, and he trusts players such as Diggins to knock down threes when they matter most.
“We’re generating open [shots] — we just haven’t knocked them down yet,” he said of the three-point shooting. “We expect that number to turn.”
A hot streak from Diggins would certainly help. So would stronger shoot-ing from veteran guard Rachel Banham, the Sky’s only player with a career three-point percentage above 35%.
But until the team is fully healthy, the fate of the offense might rest on whether young starters Gabriela Jaquez and Jacy Sheldon can get back to where they began.
Both guards were efficient in the Sky’s hot start. Sheldon has since cooled off, scoring seven points combined over the last two games. And Jaquez, the rookie whose teammates say she’s already playing like a veteran, had her first rookie-ish performance Saturday against the Lynx. She shot 1-for-8, missing lay-ups she’d been making and forcing shots she’d usually leave alone.
The tough outing didn’t seem to faze her, though. After practice Monday, she sounded like a veteran once again.
“Watching the film today, we saw what we need to do,” Jaquez said. “But [it’s] also remembering we still have it in us. We see the good clips as well. It’s there. We’ve just got to do that more consistently. We have to create four quarters of consistent Chicago Sky basketball, and that will lead to wins.”
For now, the best aspect of Sky basketball has been their defense, which is still ranked in the top five in the league, despite some recent slippage. But the offense has strong points, too. The Sky rarely turn the ball over, which is a breath of fresh air after last season. They also get to the free-throw line more than almost any other WNBA team, with Jaquez, Diggins and center Kamilla Cardoso leading the way.
“We still believe in ourselves,” Jaquez said. “We’re still gonna be a great team. [It’s] just understanding how we have to adjust moving forward.”