Chennedy Carter & Angel Reese Shine in 88-84 Sky Win

The Chicago Sky snapped the Seattle Storm's 4-game win streak.

(Seattle, WA) - Chennedy Carter and Angel Reese were spectacular in the Chicago Sky’s upset victory over the Seattle Storm (13-7). The Storm did not match the Sky’s energy and it led to them playing from behind for most of the second half. Chicago outscored Seattle 30-22 in the third period which turned the tide in favor of the Sky. The Storm’s late-game rally fell short in an 88-84 defeat. Chicago’s win ended Seattle’s 8-game win streak while playing at Climate Pledge Arena. It was also the 4th time the Sky have won in Seattle in their last five games in the Emerald City.

All five of Seattle’s starters scored in double figures but it wasn’t enough compared to the monster games from Carter and Reese for Chicago. Jordan Horston led Seattle with a season-high 20 points on an 8-11 FG shoot including 2-4 FG from beyond the three-point line. Nneka Ogwumike added 16 points. Ezi Magbegor nearly had a triple-double with 13 points, eight rebounds, and eight blocked shots. The eight blocks is a new career-high for Seattle’s starting Center. Skylar Diggins-Smith finished with 12 points and nine assists. However, she was held scoreless in the second half. Jewell Loyd finished with 13 points but went 0-6 FG from beyond the arc. Jewell was held in check for most of the game scoring just two points in the first half.

Coach Noelle Quinn talked about her team’s performance and what went wrong during that pivotal 4th quarter.

“I don't believe we've given up 30 points in a quarter this season. Defensively, it's just tough, with naked O-boards, with their physical (play). I thought some of our pace stuff offensively was lacking a little bit and just the energy level. But, yeah, defensively, not taking care of the basketball, all of those things kind of contributed to, a not-so-good third quarter. I believe it was like 22 points in the paint in that third quarter as well. So we just aren't keeping people off the paint.

Our mindset is this game is over. We can't get it back. What we'll do is prepare. We will just look at the film and see where we can get better. With the quick turnaround in the early game Sunday, (we) can't dwell on it. Move forward and we continue to get better.” Quinn stated.

While it was a disappointing loss overall, it was still an enjoyable game with exciting moments. For Seattle, none more than some of Ezi Magbegor’s incredible blocks. I spoke with Ezi and Nneka after the game about some of those.

“The guards do a really great job of getting downhill and something I like to do is just be there defensively for my teammates so I definitely think I could have done it more but just being there on the split line and being there to help getting deflections. It doesn't necessarily have to be a block but yeah just being there to help my teammates.” Magbegor said.

“It's such assertive energy when Ezi takes those shots and just swats them. It's always surprising every time, even though we know that she's capable of it. And I'm just really glad to know that we have her kind of as like the finisher, the closer on the defensive end.” Ogwumike added.

Chicago won the battle for most of the stats in the game which is listed in the next section below. The Storm did have an advantage with second-chance points outscoring the Sky 16-11. They did a great job playing in transition, outscoring Chicago 21-9 in fast break points. They also had the advantage in Free Throws outscoring the Sky 21-15.

Neither bench did much. Mercedes Russell was the best reserve for either side going a perfect 4-4 FG and scoring eight points off the bench. In retrospect, Mercedes maybe should have got a little bit more playing time but that’s difficult to say. There was a noticeable defensive difference when Ezi was off the court. Overall, Seattle’s bench outscored Chicago’s 10-6.

Chicago Sky

It was the Chennedy Carter show. And boy was she entertaining. Carter is such a phenomenon and also a bit of an enigma. Carter is such an elite scorer but has had some personal problems that have derailed her professional career. She was kicked off of the Atlanta Dream for issues in the locker room with other teammates. They suspended her for “conduct detrimental to the team”. During her tenure with the Los Angeles Sparks, she was benched for poor conduct as well.

Things had gotten so bad for Carter that no team was even willing to sign her in 2023. She was completely out of the league. And yet, in the 2024 offseason, the Chicago Sky took a chance on her and it’s completely paying off. Maybe Carter has matured. Maybe she just needed a tough coach like Teresa Weatherspoon to keep her in check. Either way, the Sky are the ones currently benefitting.

Carter finished the game with a season-high 33 points. Seattle couldn’t stop her. Chennedy shot 15-24 FG. She also added four rebounds, three assists, and three steals.

Coach Quinn talked about the difficulties Carter presents.

“Yeah, she's a tough matchup because she puts so much pressure at the rim. She's very athletic. We have a very athletic defender on her. When you contest with verticality, she's still able to get to the penthouse and finish over you. We knew that coming in, she's playing at a high level and trying to contain what she does, but even still, she's very quick.” Quinn said.

I had Quinn elaborate on what makes Carter so special.

“She has elite quickness. There's not a lot you can do. She's not in ball screens, so you can't really trap her. She's in a lot of isolations, getting downhill, so that's what it is. And then her efficiency, 15 of 24, she didn't miss a lot of shots because she was getting two feet in the paint and really finishing at a high level.” Quinn added.

Ezi Magbegor also talked about the challenge of defending Carter.

“I think with defense it takes a team to guard someone, so it's not an individual matchup. I think, you know, we could have helped whoever was matched up on her, just being there on the split line, being there to rotate, just making her shots tough. She did make some tough shots, as Nneka said, she's a great player. She knows how to get to her spots. And she is quick, so just have to, it takes five on the floor to defend her.” Magbegor stated.

Chennedy wasn’t the only star player for the Chicago Sky. Rookie Angel Reese brought a large crowd to the arena and gave them a show. Reese scored a career-high 27 points on 8-13 FG shooting. She was also 9-10 from the free throw line. That included a perfect 4-4 FT in the final 20 seconds of the game as the Storm furiously tried to rally to send the game into OT.

Reese had a double-double with 27 points and 10 rebounds. That was her 12th consecutive double-double. No player has ever done that in a single season in WNBA history.

Coach Quinn praised Reese after the game.

“I thought Angel Reese played well. She's a dog. Her mentality is to be physical, to play harder than you. And she's playing with a lot of confidence. And I don't think we matched that or exceeded that energy level. But the beauty of life, is you get an opportunity sometimes, a second chance to get it together. So I will be a lot more focused on those matchups come Sunday.” Coach said.

Kamilla Cardoso nearly had a double-double as well with nine points and eight rebounds.

Marina Mabrey added eight points and a team-high seven assists. In a lot of ways, she and Jewell Loyd canceled each other out as neither player had a particularly strong game. However, that was an advantage for Chicago as their other top players stepped up big.

Chicago outshot the Storm 47% (34-72 FG) to 45% (30-66 FG). They were also better from the three-point line as they shot 36% (5-14 FG) to 16% (3-19 FG). The biggest key stat was that the Sky out-rebounded the Storm 37-27. They also forced Seattle into 15 turnovers and scored 17 points off of those mistakes.

Game Breakdown

Skylar Diggins-Smith found Nneka Ogwumike cutting to the rim for the game’s first basket. SDS then found Ezi Magbegor at the rim for two more. Chicago grabbed offensive rebounds on their first possessions, something they are very good at and it allowed them to earn some second-chance points. Angel Reese scored down low and their other rookie Kamilla Cardoso was able to score off the defensive switch. Skylar was active early, getting to the foul line multiple times.

Chennedy Carter made some quick moves to the rim but Ezi Magbegor sent her away with some large rejections. Carter then picked up a Flagrant 1 foul against Diggins-Smith when she swiped her in the face trying to block Skylar’s shot. Jordan Horston scored on a short midrange jumper.

Carter picked up her second foul but Coach Teresa Weatherspoon made the bold decision to keep Chennedy in the game and it immediately paid off. She was able to drive past Seattle’s defense and score at the rim. And then knocked down a midrange jumper after that. Carter then made her way to the rim again for another basket.

Angel Reese then got into the action drawing a foul and making two free throws. She then got to the rim past Ezi Magbegor to cut Seattle’s lead down to just two at 16-14. Ezi got fouled and made both free throws. Marina Mabrey countered with a stepback corner three-ball. Jordan Horston scored on another short jumper.

Diamond Deshields checked in and immediately knocked down a three-pointer to give Chicago their first lead of the game. Jewell Loyd responded with a jumper at the other end. But Chennedy Carter was able to get to the rim one more time at the end of the period to put Chicago up 23-22 at the end of one.

Sami Whitcomb got a steal to open up the second quarter and it led to a transition score by Jordan Horston. Angel Reese got another offensive rebound and scored at the rim again. Nneka Ogwumike made two free throws but Carter responded on the other end. Horston did a nice pump fake and got straight to the rim for two. Carter got fouled on a drive and split a pair of free throws. Angel Reese got two more free throws to tie the game up at 30-30.

Seattle used a 8-0 run to take the lead late in the second quarter. The Storm got transition baskets by Nneka Ogwumike and Skylar Diggins-Smith. Chennedy Carter ended the run with a layup in transition with a nice pass from Marina Mabrey. It looked like the Storm were going to open up a decent lead at the break but the Sky finished the first half on a 10-4 run. Angel Reese scored six of those 10 points including knocking down a three-pointer in the final seconds of the quarter. The Storm led 42-40 at the end of the first half.

Marina Mabrey knocked down a triple on a designed play out of the break. That put the Sky back on top by one. Nneka Ogwumike drove past Angel Reese and scored at the rim. Chennedy Carter drove past Horston for the layup. Ezi and Angel swapped baskets. Reese scored again and after Jewell Loyd missed a three-pointer, Chicago found Carter racing ahead of the defense for two more points to extend Chicago’s lead to five at 51-46.

Seattle was able to draw two quick fouls against Angel Reese giving her four for the game. Isabelle Harrison scored down low. Jordan Horston knocked down a three. Kamilla Cardoso scored at the rim after getting deep post position. Chennedy Carter then scored on back-to-back possessions. The Sky outscored Seattle 19-9 through the first five minutes of the second half. With Chicago leading 59-51, Coach Quinn called a timeout to settle her team down.

Out of the timeout, they ran a play for Ezi who nearly converted at the rim. She didn’t but she was able to get a rebound and kick it out to Jewell for a successful jumper. Seattle got a stop and found Nneka Ogwunike open for a corner three to cut Chicago’s lead back down to three at 59-56. Lindsay Allen got to the rim for two with Seattle’s rim protector (Magbegor) resting on the bench. Kamilla Cardoso scored again and Ogwumike made some free throws.

Chicago finished the third period on a 7-4 run to take a 70-64 lead into the fourth quarter. That included baskets from Allen, Cardoso, and an AND1 from Chennedy Carter.

Mercedes Russell scored for the Storm to start the final frame. Chennedy Carter scored with a finger roll at the rim and another pull-up jumper. Seattle simply had no answer for her all game long. Russell had another layup for Seattle.

Nneka scored a short corner jumper to cut Seattle’s deficit down to five. Angel Reese then made her second three-pointer of the game to put the Sky back up by eight. Coach Noelle Quinn looked like she was in disbelief.

Loyd was able to score on a jumper. Seattle then forced a 24-second shot clock violation. Jewell then tipped in an Ezi miss to cut Chicago’s lead down to four at 79-75.

Chennedy Carter was able to drive baseline and despite some solid defense from Horston, scored on a little flip to the rim. Jordan banked in a three-pointer to cut Seattle’s deficit to six with under 90 seconds to play. The Storm continued to rally. Seattle forced another shot clock violation. Then Ezi was able to drive to the rim for two.

Ezi got another block, her 8th of the game, and a new career-high. Magbegor scored again to cut Chicago’s lead to just two at 84-82 with 20 seconds left in the game. It looked like Seattle then forced a turnover on the inbounds pass by Chicago but the refs called the possession in favor of the Sky. Coach Quinn challenged it but did not win the challenge. This forced Seattle to immediately foul. They fouled Angel Reese but she was able to make both free throws.

Jewell then was fouled on a three-point shot attempt but missed the first free throw. Loyd was able to knock down the next two to keep it a two-point game with 10 seconds left in the game. Seattle was forced to foul Reese again and once again she made both free throws to seal the game for Chicago. The Sky won 88-84.

Final Box Score

Additional Analysis

Chicago’s Future is Bright

This Chicago Sky team feels like it has some great potential. They’re not always going to play as well as they did Friday night as evidenced by their 8-11 overall record. But they have a lot of young key pieces that the franchise can build around moving forward.

Angel Reese was voted as a WNBA All-Star. She broke the record for most consecutive double-doubles in WNBA history in her rookie year. And she’s getting noticeably better as the season has gone on. She won Rookie of the Month in June and she just scored a career-high 27 points against the Storm in July.

Over her last six games, Reese has put up some incredible numbers.
27 PTS 10 REB
12 PTS 19 REB
10 PTS 16 REB
18 PTS 11 REB
25 PTS 16 REB
16 PTS 18 REB

She’s out-working, out-hustling all of the other players out on the court game after game. For all her critics about how she doesn’t have an outside shot, she went 2-2 FG from three-point range in this game and made 90% of her free throws as well. Whether she’s unconventional or maybe lacks certain skills on the court; it really won’t matter. If Angel Reese continues to play like this and continues to develop she is going to be one of the league’s best power forwards in the WNBA. Look at Alyssa Thomas as an example of someone Reese can replicate. It’s not always pretty but they get the job done. The Bayou Barbie turned Chi-Town Barbie is something else.

As fellow reporter Annie Costabile of the Chicago Sun-Times pointed out, the Sky now have a pairing of “Barbie and Chen (Ken)”. Chennedy Carter is still just 25 years old and is playing in her fourth WNBA season currently. If she has matured and can avoid the drama or attitude/conduct issues that have plagued her in the past, the Sky will also have one of the league’s best shooting guards on their roster. Carter has elite quickness and downhill speed. She has a deadly midrange shot and can get past almost every defender. She got past Jordan Horston, one of the league’s best wing defenders, with ease repeatedly.

Carter is up there with Arike Ogunbowale and Jewell Loyd as one of the league’s best isolation players in the WNBA. She can create her own shot and get to her spots better than the majority of the other players. What makes Chennedy even more dangerous, at least potentially, is that she is significantly more efficient than either Loyd or Ogunbowale. Carter is currently shooting 55% FG from the floor this season. For her career, she’s just a hair under 49% overall which is incredible for a guard. Her only real offensive weakness is her three-point shot. She’s making just 20% of her three-pointers this season and is a sub-30% shooter from beyond the arc for her career.

If you compare her shooting numbers to Jewell and Arike they are very favorable. Loyd is a career 40.5% shooter. Ogunbowale is even worse at 39%. Carter just needs to stay out of trouble and she has the potential to create an impressive legacy for herself.

For the Sky that’s not all though. They’re also integrating 6’7” Center Kamilla Cardoso into the mix. Cardoso missed the first six games this season with an injury that she suffered in the preseason. That included Seattle’s first game against Chicago in which the Storm won. But she has returned now and has worked her way into the starting lineup.

While not quite as impressive as Angel Reese, Cardoso is still putting up strong numbers for a rookie. The third overall pick is averaging 8.4 PPG and 7.8 RPG. If she continues to improve as the season goes on, she might come close to averaging a double-double. That’s not bad at all if that’s your team’s third or fourth-best player.

The Sky have a pretty solid young core with Angel Reese, Kamilla Cardoso, Chennedy Carter, and Marina Mabrey. All of those players are 27 years or younger. On top of that, Chicago will probably end up with somewhere between the 5th and 7th overall pick in next year’s WNBA Draft.

The Dallas Wings do own the rights to a pick swap with the Chicago Sky for the 2025 first-round pick. However, currently, Dallas’s pick would be the better pick meaning Dallas would just keep their own pick and that would allow Chicago to keep theirs as well.

If Chicago can land another starter in next year’s draft they’re going to have an opportunity to build a really nice core in Chicago. They could end up building into a contender faster than the Indiana Fever who have landed back-to-back #1 overall picks.

Playoff Prep

This game was thrilling and exciting. You had players on each team who made some incredible plays. Whether it was Ezi Magbegor having one of the most impressive defensive games with some unreal blocks. Or Chennedy Carter dazzling with the basketball and scoring at will.

The arena had a great crowd that was loud with nearly 11,000 people in attendance. Things got intense over the final 3-5 minutes of the game. Especially, as Seattle did everything it could to rally. Both teams did their best to execute down the stretch. Every single possession counted. Turnovers were costly. Big three-pointers were huge. And free throws were critical to Chicago’s eventual win.

With the atmosphere, the larger crowd, the intensity, the timely possessions, etc. This truly felt like a playoff game to me. Maybe even more so because this is a two-game stretch where these two teams play consecutive games back-to-back on Friday and Sunday.

Despite not winning this game. I felt like this was a good learning experience for the Storm. And especially for players like Jordan Horston and even Ezi Magbegor. Jordan has not played in a playoff series yet in the WNBA but likely will later this year. These moments are incredibly important for her to experience. The same can be said for Ezi Magbegor. This is Ezi’s 5th season and she’s already won a WNBA Championship during her rookie year in 2020. However, she’s only played in the playoffs with Breanna Stewart. There may come a moment or two in 2024 when Ezi Magbegor will be tasked with coming up with a game-winning shot or being tasked to execute an important play down the stretch. Ezi scored twice in the final minute of this game.

These are the type of moments that young players can build off of. They can learn so much and it might be the difference between advancing to the next round of the playoffs or going home.

After the game, I spoke with both Nneka Ogwumike and Coach Noelle Quinn about gaining this experience in these moments for the team’s young players.

“Not just the atmosphere, but also the nature of playing a team twice in three days. You know, we just did that with Dallas. Since the bubble, you find that as kind of more of a of what you face like on the road now playing to being in one city for a few days and playing two teams. And I think that locking into the adjustments and watching the game back and preparing for the next one without dwelling necessarily on the mistakes of the last is something that it's not even just young players. I think it's all players can usually use that as a really great experience as you kind of get into the meat of this season. We're halfway through right now. So there's that, there's the atmosphere, there's people really just fighting to stay in their spots and move up the ladder, and then also getting to play the same team in 72 hours. That's a really great playoff experience.” Ogwuike answered.

Coach Quinn complimented Horston and Magbegor for their performances.

“Yeah, I thought that Ezi cleaned up a lot of our mistakes. A lot of those blocks came from help side, and not necessarily mistakes, but them getting downhill and just being vertical and using her instincts to block shots. Eight blocks is amazing. And then Jordan, she's been taking on some tough assignments. And I know she's probably beating herself up because she thinks Chennedy had a great game, but at the end of the day, it's a team effort. I think that Jordan is really, really developing her mind, her body for being an elite defender in this league, but also showcasing the off-season work and her efficiency offensively.” Quinn praised her young players.

I specifically asked Quinn about those players playing big roles in this tightly contested game. She talked about that experience for them.

“Yeah, it matters. Every rep that we can get this season with those two particularly is important. It is like a playoff cadence as it relates to just playing them again on Sunday. And for us, is what adjustment that we make, how would those two be even better defensively and us as a team, just being sharper on both ends of the floor. But yeah, you're absolutely right, whether it's the energy of the crowd, the type, the game, possession by possession. These are reps that are very important to our young players.” Coach Quinn added.

Up Next

Seattle and Chicago rematch on Sunday, July 7th in Seattle at 3:00 PM PDT at Climate Pledge Arena. The series is currently tied 1-1 with each road team coming away with the victory.

Notes:
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