The perfect closing for this story is getting closer and closer. Candace Parker arrived in her native Chicago last February to sign with the Sky. “I’m home,” he said. It was like the announcement that Ulysses was at the gates of Ithaca. She was left behind her particular life odyssey, which had taken her from Tennessee to Los Angeles, from success to success. Ahead, a few more missions to meet Penelope again. To win his second WNBA ring. This time, with his home team.
He only has one left. Last morning from Friday 15 to Saturday 16 October, Chicago Sky overwhelmed Phoenix Mercury in the third game of the finals (50-86) and was placed 2-1 in the WNBA finals, just one victory behind the first ring in the history of this franchise.
Kaleah Copper destroys the Mercury
After their defeat in the second game of the finals, the Chicago Sky yesterday returned to be the team that has astonished everyone in these playoffs. A very intense team, which passes over the rivals in each divided ball, in each loose rebound. That he has fun the more the game becomes disheveled and the more winding the party road becomes. It seems easy when you have two luxury drivers like Courtney Vandersloot and Candace Parker.
Chicago sweeps the race. And at the races Kaleah Copper, the team’s pylon hammer, reaches its zenith. Because with a portentous physique, the rival rim attacks again and again, unprotected thanks to the fact that four other Skies live outside the line of three. Because every counterattack commanded by Vandersloot or Parker usually ends up with her as a finisher. And now, as if that weren’t enough, the PerfumerÃas Avenida player, who is aiming for MVP of the finals, also scores three.
Chicago had killed the game at halftime. 46-24. Much of the scoring responsibility had come from Copper, who scored 20 points in the first two quarters.
Choral responsibility in the Sky
Kaleah Copper is not the only name to stand out in the franchise of Chitown. We must speak, of course, of a Candace Parker who has emerged as the leader of the team in a matter of months. An Ulysses who defends, passes, shoots three, talks, helps in defense, talks a little more and does everything she has to do to win games.
You have to name, of course, Courtney Vandersloot, today perhaps the best point guard in the WNBA. League leader in assists in six different seasons, Sloot He handed out another 10 yesterday and broke the record for the most basket passes in a WNBA playoff. And beyond the numbers, it is the beacon that guides the Sky. The one that, based on the old school as it is, sets the pace. The one that scores if the team needs points. The one that happens when you need it. The one that steals that key ball that is used to win the game.
Last but not least, as they say in those lands, we must name the Spanish Astou Ndour, Stefeanie Dolson, Azurá Stevens, Diamond DeShields. And James Wade, Sky technician. The one who has managed to get his pupils to this point of the season as the great voltomaniacs arrive at the key week of the Tour de France: with the best pedal stroke of the season. Ready to leave a trail of birds on the way up to the Tourmalet.
This is what they are doing. In a playoff in which they came undercover, as if to say we?Nah, nah, catch us pretty soon, if Candace just arrived, if we start the fatal seasonAt most reach the semifinals and happy, because there they are: a victory from the ring. Along the way have been Dallas Wings, Minnesota Lynx and the favorites: Connecticut Sun. On point, there are the Phoenix Mercury.
Sunday, date with the ring
Tomorrow, Sunday October 17, Candace Parker and company have the appointment with what may be the last mission of their odyssey. It will be at 21:00 Spanish time. At home, before an audience that packed the Wintrust Arena in yesterday’s match.
In front they will wait for some Mercury that are not found. Skylar Diggins-Smith doesn’t, unrecognizable. Not Brittney Griner. Not even Diana Taurasi, who finished the last game desperate, with 1/10 from the field. In any case, with her on the track, you know, no story can be said to be closed. As much as Ulysses is already there, knocking on the doors of a ring called Ithaca.