It has been seven years since the Chicago Sky made it to the WNBA Finals, but Wednesday’s potential clincher in Game 4 of the semifinals against the Connecticut Sun isn’t a new experience for three of the team’s starters.
Courtney Vandersloot and Allie Quigley are the last holdovers from that 2014 team that lost in the championship series to the Phoenix Mercury, and no Sky squad has made it past the semifinals since then.
Candace Parker’s history speaks for itself.
Her Los Angeles Sparks lost in the Western Conference finals five times in a six-season period before finally breaking through to the championship round and winning it in 2016.
“I always used to laugh when my vets would talk about experience, and they would talk about moments when their experience would come in,” Parker said Sunday after an 86-83 win in Game 3. “I’ve been on this brink in Game 4 with a chance to close it out, and we haven’t.
“So I know nothing is going to be easy. Our mindset has always been one game at a time, and that’s how it has to be on Wednesday.”
The Sky will be tested in a similar fashion at Wintrust Arena after taking a 2-1 lead in the semifinal series against the Sun, who had the league’s best record in the regular season. The Sky held WNBA MVP Jonquel Jones to 10 points in Game 3, but they’ll be hard pressed to repeat that effort.
At least two younger members of the Sky have looked to the veterans to prepare them for what’s to come.
“Mainly Candace,” guard Dana Evans said Tuesday. “She does a lot of the vocal talking, asking questions, making sure everybody knows what’s going on and we’re all locked in and on the same page.
“And Sloot will put her two cents in as well, but also she leads by example, and that’s how (Kahleah) Copper is as well. “
Center Azura Stevens agrees that Vandersloot is more of a quiet leader by example, while Parker is vocal before, during and after practice, “just talking about how this next game’s going to be.”
“She’s been in this before,” Stevens said.
Stevens (11 rebounds) and Parker (10) dominated the boards Sunday, but they know they’ll be challenged more in the paint by Jones, DeWanna Bonner and Alyssa Thomas.
Stevens said she expects “another level of toughness that we’re going to have to match from the jump.”
“They’re just going to go harder and harder and harder — we saw that a little bit the last game,” Stevens said. “They’re going to come out really on the attack, and we’re just going to have to keep doing what we’re doing.”
Sun coach Curt Miller said he would make adjustments to try to neutralize Vandersloot as a facilitator, but Vandersloot and Sky coach James Wade said they’ll be ready for that.
“That’s what Connecticut is really good at, making adjustments” said Vandersloot, who 13 assists, five rebounds, a steal and a block in Game 3. “They have players that can do multiple things defensively. … I’m prepared for that. I look a lot to my teammates to make a lot of plays.”
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Wade said for Copper, a slasher who scored a game-high 26 points Sunday, “maybe they’ll try to pack the paint a little bit more.”
Wade added that the Sun might try to box out Stevens and bring more pressure on Vandersloot, but he doesn’t expect it to rattle her.
“We want the ball in her hands. … She’s been in this situation before,” he said. “She has a certain maturity, not only in her game but a maturity in our system. We’ve been together for three years and she knows the way things run. She’s a willing passer and you know she’s going to make good decisions.”
In the big picture, Wade knows what’s at stake.
The Sky have made the playoffs in each of his three seasons as coach, but this is the furthest they’ve advanced.
In a sense, the single-elimination wins over the Dallas Wings in the first round and the Minnesota Lynx in the second prepared the Sky for this moment.
“It’s made us have to focus, made us have to be in tune, made us have to play at a playoff level earlier because it was win or go home,” Wade said. “It’s easier to preach that it’s that type of game when it is that type of game.”
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