The WNBA season is only 44 games long. By the 12th game, patterns start to stick.
‘‘At this point, teams pretty much know who you are,’’ Sky head coach Tyler Marsh said last week.
So who are the Sky?
After their 107-86 blowout loss Saturday to the Mercury dropped them to 3-9, one thing is clear: This is a team that turns over the ball constantly and can’t stop opponents from behind the arc.
Few plays summed that up better than a baseball pass by Kamilla Cardoso in the second quarter. She was trying to hit a streaking Angel Reese in transition, but the pass was intercepted and turned into a Mercury three-pointer — a five-point swing in a matter of seconds.
‘‘Sometimes handling pressure is mental as much as it is physical, and we didn’t do it consistently enough,’’ Marsh said. ‘‘Another 20-plus-turnover game. It’s tough to win when you do that.’’
Seven turnovers in the first quarter led to 13 points for the Mercury. By the end, the Mercury had scored 29 points off giveaways.
It was an especially deflating performance, considering the Sky had spent the week in practice preparing for the Mercury’s press. But when the traps started coming, the Sky crumbled.
‘‘Teams are gonna continue to do that to us because they see we struggle with it,’’ guard Michaela Onyenwere said.
Even after the Mercury pulled back on the pressure, the turnovers kept coming — in every imaginable way. Players getting stripped. Traveling. Throwing the ball out of bounds because the receiver wasn’t looking. A team out of rhythm and out of sync.
Some of it is structural. Ariel Atkins is being asked to run point, which is not her natural role. She committed five turnovers in the first quarter alone. And the more she’s asked to initiate, the fewer catch-and-shoot looks she gets, which is when she’s most dangerous.
A more generous reading of the Sky’s identity is that this is a team without a true point guard trying to make it work. They have good pieces still waiting to be unlocked. What they can be is unknown. Most Sky players acknowledge that.
‘‘I really don’t think we have one thing to describe us right now,’’ rookie guard Hailey Van Lith told the Sun-Times before the game. ‘‘That’s not a bad thing.’’
Van Lith, like others in the locker room, is staying optimistic. She has a vision for what the Sky can become, a team based on depth and balance.
‘‘I see kind of like a Spurs or a Pacers vibe, where everybody contributes the same amount,’’ she said. ‘‘You can go on runs that way. You can get hot very fast.’’
That’s one theory, and the existing roster supports it on paper. Reese, Atkins and Cardoso have been solid co-stars. Becca Allen, Kia Nurse and Elizabeth Williams bring veteran glue. The idea is to have a balanced group, so anyone can take the lead on any given night.
One game past quarter mark of the season, however, it’s not clear what that glue is supposed to be holding together.
‘‘We’re all frustrated,’’ Marsh said.
So is it time to bring in a new piece — or to let one go?
‘‘In terms of changing the roster, I don’t really want to get into that,’’ Marsh said. ‘‘I think we’ve got to focus on who we have in this locker room and understand what we need to do to be the best version of who we have.’’