Sky Notebook: Chicago showing progress

The Chicago Sky (2-4) went 2-2 on the week with their two wins coming at the end of the week against the Dallas Wings and their two losses at the hands of the Los Angeles Sparks and Phoenix Mercury.

Chicago now sit at No. 9 in the WNBA rankings.

Atkins' aggressive approach

The Chicago Sky took a risk in the offseason trading away the No. 3 overall pick and future draft capital to the Washington Mystics to acquire veteran guard Ariel Atkins. That risk now looks like it's paying off with Atkins finally finding her rhythm in Tyler Marsh's system.

To open up the 2025 season, Atkins put up only 28 combined points over the Sky's first three games. Against the Phoenix Mercury, she finally started to settle in and has now put up 64 combined points over the last three games. The aggressiveness and tenacity the Sky knew she had showed up over the last three games, allowing the Sky to stay close or pull out victories.

"These last two games is the Ariel we want to see," Marsh said after the Sky's win over Dallas on May 29. "She's getting more and more comfortable with our system and with her teammates. Her teammates have put her in position to allow her to know who she is to us.

"I think that's just as important as anything, the mentality of feeling the love and energy and the trust that you have from your teammates and from your coaching staff to just be you. That's what we want her to feel."

That carried over into the Sky's 94-83 win over the Dallas Wings on May 31 where Atkins put up a season high 26 points while shooting 57.1% from the floor and 50% from behind the arc. When she's tapped in, the Sky feed off her energy, but this also comes with time in learning a brand new system.

"I think it's intentionality, but I honestly think we're getting more chemistry as a team," Atkins said after the win on May 31. "I think as you see us get more comfortable with each other, we're starting to realize where all of our shots are coming from when we individually can hone in on our strengths. I honestly think our team chemistry is really getting there. So we're starting to figure out how we can play well together."

Chemistry is cooking

Atkins said it best. The chemistry within this team is starting to click.

At the start of the season, the Sky's offense looked incredibly rushed with poor shot choices, forced takes and an incredibly high turnover rate. You could absolutely tell that they were still learning where everyone's spots were, where they liked the ball and where they feel the most confident in space.

It started to show some semblance against the Los Angeles Sparks, but the lack of perimeter defense allowed the Sparks to put up 33 points in the third quarter with 17 of those coming from Kelsey Plum. That led to the Sky's 91-78 loss to the Sparks on May 25.

The game against the Phoenix Mercury on May 27 was the same story, but the Sky stayed in that game until the final minutes of the fourth quarter. After the game, players knew that they were so close to finally finding that composure as a team to gel together.

"I think tonight we definitely have some sparks where we know our advantages. We know the things that we can excel at," Angel Reese said after the loss. "I just think defensively, we just have to continue to to guard our yard together, collectively. We can see we can score everybody from top to bottom. We can see we can score. We just gotta defend."

Just two days later, the Sky finally locked in defensively around the arc, and things started to fall into place. The Sky locked down a stong perimeter shooting Wings team to just 36.4% from the arc on May 29 and then to 26.7% on May 31.

Passes were crisp, there was offensive flow and players started to gel off each other. The system is showing promise.

Valuing the basketball

The biggest issue offensively for the Sky to open up the season was turnovers. Heading into the game against the Los Angeles Sparks, Chicago averaged 21.5 turnovers a game and gave up 25.5 points off those turnovers.

The turnovers started to drop with each game throughout the week. Heading into halftime against the Sparks, the Sky had 10 turnovers. Same thing against the Phoenix Mercury and Dallas Wings on May 29 with 10 turnovers at halftime.

However, compared to the first two games of the season, those numbers dropped drastically in the second half in all three games. The Sky put up a season low 14 turnovers in the first matchup against the Wings on May 29.

On May 31, the Sky put up a season low 8 turnovers in the first half and just 7 in the second half. This is still an area of focus for the Sky, because they're still giving up double digit points off these turnovers. The Sky rank No. 3 in most opponent's points off turnovers with an average of 18.2 a game and No. 2 in most turnovers with 18.2 a game.

Valuing the basketball is still a top priority for the Sky, but the more time this team plays together, the turnovers will fall. The stats show that progress. If the Sky can keep their turnover average on the season to just around 10-12 a game, that's a great sign of progress.

The Chicago Sky play one game this week, welcoming in the Indiana Fever on June 7 at the United Center. Tip time is set for 7 p.m. on CBS.

Stats & Notes

• Kia Nurse reached 500 career rebounds vs. LA

• Elizabeth Williams reached 2,500 career points vs. PHX

• Courtney Vandersloot became the Sky's all-time leading scorer and most field goals made vs. DAL (5/29)

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