ARLINGTON, Texas — Rookie wing Gabriela Jaquez was a solid three-point shooter in college. Through the first nine games of her WNBA career, however, she hadn’t made more than two threes in a game.
Then came the Liberty.
Jaquez went 4-for-5 from three-point range and scored 22 points Wednesday, nearly helping the Sky pull off an upset. Her secret? Imagining the beach.
‘‘Me and [guard] Rachel [Banham] were talking about how a lot of players, especially me, play better when we’re not thinking too much,’’ Jaquez said at shootaround Saturday. ‘‘So we kinda made a joke where we’re like, ‘Let’s think about vacation, shopping, the beach.’ My mentality going into the game was just to . . . have fun and think about vacations.’’
The Sky probably should have tried this sooner. They have struggled from three-point range all season, shooting only 29% as a team.
But Jaquez is helping to turn things around. The Sky entered their game Saturday against the Wings shooting 43.5% from three-point range in their last three games. Guards Skylar Diggins and Sydney Taylor also have heated up in that stretch.
Jaquez still is easing into the three-point shot. She had attempted only 23 in 10 games entering Saturday but was shooting 43.5% after her outburst against the Liberty.
That’s a good sign for Jaquez, whom the Sky selected with the No. 5 overall pick in April and already has put together a strong rookie season. She is averaging 11.1 points, 4.4 rebounds and 1.1 steals, and her floor game has translated to the WNBA immediately. She rebounds, runs the floor and finds open seams for cuts. A dependable three-pointer could take her to another level.
The performance against the Liberty also snapped a brief lull after Jaquez returned from a hyperextended knee. She played well in her first game back, then followed with three points and five turnovers against the Dream and only six points in an overtime loss to the Fever.
A trip to the beach — at least mentally — helped her find her rhythm again.
Taylor envy
After scoring 30 points against the Fever and 24 against the Liberty, Taylor has put the rest of the league on notice.
‘‘Very impressed,’’ Wings coach Jose Fernandez said of Taylor. ‘‘[She] went overseas, worked on her craft, committed to working on her game. . . . She’s really put in the work, and she’s getting the rewards of that right now.’’
Fernandez said the Wings considered inviting Taylor to training camp, but she already had committed to the Sky.
Taylor went undrafted in 2024 and was unfamiliar to many WNBA observers, but not to Fernandez. Before taking the Wings’ coaching job, he coached at South Florida and noticed Taylor when she played at UMass.
Will the Sky have an All-Star?
The Sky are hosting the All-Star Game, but it’s unclear whether any of their players will take part. Center Kamilla Cardoso was their only player among the top 40 in the first returns of fan voting.
Cardoso is averaging 11.9 points, 8.3 rebounds and 2.6 assists. Her rebounding average is among the top 10 in the league, and she is fifth among centers in assists.