The Chicago Sky are teetering on the edge of playoff elimination after dropping a pair of losses to the Minnesota Lynx and the Phoenix Mercury — they usually might need to shut the season with out both of their rookie stars.
Kamilla Cardoso was listed as questionable for Tuesday’s sport towards the Atlanta Dream on account of a lingering shoulder damage. Cardoso dislocated her shoulder within the Sky’s first preseason sport towards the Lynx in Might, an damage that precipitated her to overlook the primary three video games of the common season.
Cardoso landed on the damage report after showing to re-aggravate the damage in a loss to the Lynx on Friday. She tried to play via the damage in Sunday’s loss to the Phoenix Mercury however performed solely 9 minutes earlier than being shut down by head coach Teresa Weatherspoon on account of ache.
The Sky, taking part in with out rookie Angel Reese on account of a season-ending damage, are at the moment ninth within the WNBA with an similar report to the Washington Mystics (13-25) and Dream (13-25). They misplaced the season head-to-head tiebreaker to the Mystics (3-1) however at the moment maintain a bonus within the tiebreak over the Dream (2-1).
Two last highway video games will assist decide the postseason final result for the Sky, who will face the Dream on Tuesday and the Connecticut Solar (27-11) on Thursday. But when the Mystics win their last two video games, the Sky will be unable to have an effect on their standing and can miss the playoffs for the primary time since 2018.
Bulls broadcasts will probably be free over the air
Chicago Bulls followers can have over-the-air entry to native broadcasts for the primary time in 20 years this season.
When Chicago Sports activities Community — a brand new in-house community that may function the Bulls, Blackhawks and White Sox — launches on Oct. 1, will probably be primarily obtainable without spending a dime over the air. Followers will solely want an antenna to entry all 77 domestically broadcast video games this season. The community will stay on the 62.2 and 62.3 sub-channels.
CHSN is anticipated to announce an settlement with DirecTV quickly, however has not come to phrases with different paid TV carriers corresponding to Xfinity and YouTube TV. Read more on the new network here.
Younger Bulls core regroups at Ayo Dosunmu’s native camp
The Bulls are again on the town — and the crew’s younger core reassembled to assist Ayo Dosunmu at his annual academy camp final weekend.
Dosunmu hosted a two-day youth basketball and cheerleading camp at Shepard Excessive College in Palos Heights over the weekend, the newest in a schedule of neighborhood occasions for the Morgan Park alumnus. Teammates Coby White, Patrick Williams, Dalen Terry and Julian Phillips additionally participated within the camp.
Off-the-court actions aren’t all the time a significant storyline for Bulls gamers within the offseason — however this season, the cohesiveness of this younger group is crucial for the crew’s short- and long-term success. The Bulls are doubling down on their funding in gamers like White, Dosunmu and Williams, who will probably be anticipated to anchor this season’s roster after years of filling supporting roles.
The vast majority of the Bulls roster has been within the space and understanding collectively in elective coaching classes this month — together with guard Zach LaVine, who will probably be one other essential piece for the Bulls because the crew makes an attempt to reintegrate him into the roster whereas additionally rehabilitating his market value after a disastrous 2023-24 season.
Variety of the week: 58
The Sky’s playoff possibilities had been broken of their final sport towards the Washington Mystics, a brutal 89-58 loss Wednesday that highlighted each one of many crew’s flaws.
With the loss, the Sky ceded the head-to-head tiebreaker to the Mystics, which doubtless will decide the ultimate seeding for the playoffs as Washington stays on observe to stumble to an eighth-place end. However the Sky additionally marked their worst offensive efficiency of the season within the loss — 58 factors on 35.7% capturing. The Sky turned the ball over 15 instances whereas recording 17 assists and capturing 12.5% from behind the arc. The bench scored solely eight factors whereas Chennedy Carter supplied 28% (16 factors) of the entire scoring.
The Sky have been the lowest-scoring crew within the WNBA because the Olympic break, averaging 76.4 factors per sport whereas having the second-worst capturing proportion (42.3%) within the league. They averaged the second-fewest assists (19) within the league in that very same span.
Quote of the week
“This was embarrassing.” — Kamilla Cardoso after the Sky’s loss to the Washington Mystics
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