The Sky came into the season thinking that the league was underestimating them defensively, and so far, they’ve been right.
The team has a top-five defensive rating through five games, trailing only the Dream, Valkyries, Aces and Fever. Not bad company to keep — and not a bad turnaround from last year when they were one of the worst defensive teams in the league.
Of course it’s an entirely new roster, and the athleticism on it has allowed Coach Tyler Marsh to take a different approach.
“This year we’re more on the side of being aggressive and disruptive,” Marsh said. “Last year was more of a conservative approach, and containing the ball and being somewhat constrained to certain matchups.
“We just have a different type of roster and a different type of versatility that we can explore this year, and so it allows for more aggression, with our ability to impact the ball on the perimeter first and foremost, and hope that that takes some of the pressure off our [post players protecting the rim].”
The combination of ball pressure from supremely athletic guards — Skylar Diggins, Natasha Cloud, Jacy Sheldon and Gabriela Jaquez — and rim protection from the bigs has been effective and generated excitement.
Cloud couldn’t stop raving about the defense after the win in Minnesota last week.
“I’ve been in the league 11 years and a lot of times I’m the only primary defender on the perimeter,” Cloud said. “I can’t tell you what a relief it is to have [Jaquez] on the side with me, [Sheldon], [Diggins] on the wings with me. We all can defend, we can all be super versatile. We get up, we’re aggressive, and it allows us to get deflections, push offenses out of where they want to be.”
The first five games have made clear who the Sky (3-2) are trying to be. Tough. Connected. Bringing heavy pressure. But for a defensive-minded identity to really take root, it needs to be tested over time.
Losing forward Rickea Jackson to a season-ending ACL injury is one such test. She didn’t come into the season known for her defense, but she was already showing that her athleticism, length and instincts for the ball translated to that end, too.
The Sky will have to figure out how to make up for that.
Another test is how they respond to slippage. The Sky gave up 99 points in their loss to the Wings — only the second time they’d allowed more than 90 this season.
Diggins credited some incredible shotmaking from the Wings’ backcourt. Arike Ogunbowale and Paige Bueckers combined for 47 points, including 9 3-pointers. But Diggins still thought it came down to their own mistakes.
“I think we’re just a little bit more undisciplined than we usually are defensively… We kind of just cut corners defensively,” Diggins said after the loss. “In that third quarter we didn’t get a consecutive stop, and I thought that was very uncharacteristic of what our defense was looking like the first four games.”
In their second win of the season, the Sky’s ball pressure smothered the Valkyries, holding them to the third-lowest field goal percentage in franchise history. In their third, their pressure seriously bothered All-Star guards Courtney Williams and Kayla McBride in Minnesota.
But now those teams know. The element of surprise — or even underestimation — is gone.
The Lynx return to Wintrust Arena on Saturday. Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve’s teams are also typically disruptive defensively — which means she might know a thing or two about how to weaponize it against you.
Are the Sky ready for her response?
Their counters and adjustments will define them much more than their original game plan.
Latest on the Sky and WNBA
