The WNBA playoff race is heating up. With 12 teams vying for eight playoff spots, there is bound to be some late-season drama as they compete for a spot in the big dance. On Tuesday night, it seemed as though the standings-watching has begun for those in the fringes of the playoff race, with Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese appearing to keep a close eyes on the Indiana Fever’s 84-79 win over the Atlanta Dream.
Reese, of course, has a well-documented history with Fever star Caitlin Clark. They both rose through the ranks together and emerged as game-changing talents that drew eyes to women’s basketball. The Sky forward famously pointed at her ring finger to taunt Clark as the former’s LSU defeated Iowa in the 2023 NCAA Women’s National Championship Game. This time around, however, it sure looks like Reese is on Clark’s side.
Posting on her official X account, Angel Reese tweeted out a GIF of herself celebrating, seemingly relishing the fact that the Dream, the Sky’s closest competitor for the eighth and final playoff spot, lost a crucial game against the Fever.
All is fair in love and war, and the Sky are certainly in the trenches as they look to keep their spot as the eighth and final playoff team this season. They have been slumping as of late, losing three straight, so it is certainly helpful for them that the Dream keep losing games.
At present, the Sky (11-18) remain one game ahead of the Dream (10-19) on the win-loss column. Angel Reese, however, may want to keep the celebrations to herself for the meantime, if, indeed, the tweet was alluding to Atlanta’s loss to the Fever on Tuesday night.
Prior to 2020, WNBA teams only played 34 games in the season, which would mean that there would only have been five games left on the schedule. But since 2023, teams now have 40 games on the regular-season schedule. Thus, the Sky have 11 more games to go in the season. That is plenty of time for the Dream to overcome a one-game deficit, especially when the two teams have an impending clash on September 17, the penultimate game of the season.
Can Angel Reese, Sky battle out of slump?
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Does the current predicament that Angel Reese and the Sky find themselves in count as a “slump”? Their past three games were very difficult; they began the stretch with a contest against a battle-tested Phoenix Mercury side, followed that up with a tussle against a very deep Connecticut Sun team, and then their latest game was against the reigning champion Las Vegas Aces. That was always going to be a rough stretch to go through, and it’s not exactly a huge surprise that they went 0-3 in that run of games.
The good news is that the Sky’s next game will be coming against a 7-22 team in the Washington Mystics. That should give them a golden opportunity for a victory, which they must seize, since their next three games after that will be coming against teams currently in playoff position in the Fever, Minnesota Lynx, and Aces (in that order).
Reese will have to improve her game if the Sky were to swim in a sink-or-swim stretch. Those 3-12 or 4-16 nights simply won’t cut it. Moreover, Chennedy Carter may have to put together the best stretch of her career to help Chicago hold off the Dream in the race for eighth place.
