Just two games this Saturday in the WNBA, but both with potential playoff implications down the line. Both could even be early previews of matchups we might see in the 2012 postseason.
The first game to tip off was Chicago’s trip to Indiana. The Sky held the prettier record heading into the game, but Indiana are the team with the history of making and advancing in the playoffs. All this winning is new to Chicago and they’re going to have to keep proving themselves as the season goes along. The Fever had lost three in a row, including a disappointing performance in Washington the night before. They needed a bounce-back performance to stop this losing streak from lingering and causing serious consternation.
Chicago made a switch to their starting five, noticeably trying to match up with this year’s smaller Fever starting lineup, featuring Tamika Catchings at power forward. The Sky slid Swin Cash to the 4 to guard Catchings, bringing Tamera Young in as an extra perimeter player and moving Ruth Riley to the bench. With Riley out there, Sylvia Fowles had been forced to guard Catchings in their previous game against the Fever, which puts added pressure on Big Syl. The change allowed Fowles to take Tammy Sutton-Brown as her initial assignment, and offer her standard help defense wherever else it proved necessary.
Unfortunately for the Sky, the lineup change ultimately proved something of a waste of time. Twice inside the opening three minutes of the game, Shavonte Zellous drove around Courtney Vandersloot, who bumped her as Zellous tried to shoot. Both occasions drew fouls on the Sky point guard, Sloot went to the bench, and Riley was back in anyway. So much for the new lineup.
Despite having their pre-game plans disrupted, Chicago were flowing nicely in the opening quarter. Continue reading