CHICAGO -- The Sparks (4-10) continue their little jaunt in the midwest as they visit the Sky (3-10) in Illinois.
The last time they faced each other was in Los Angeles when the Sparks defeated them last month, 91-78.
Both teams are on a three-game losing streak. While the Sparks are always missing multiple players, the Sky themselves have lost an important player in Courtney Vandersloot, who is gone for the season after tearing her ACL about a couple of weeks ago.
With no true point guard for the Sky, they struggle to take care of the ball, as they are last in both turnovers and turnover percentage. Add to that that they are both second worst in both offensive rating (points per possession) and defensive rating (points per possession allowed) and they seem open for the taking against the Sparks.
Still, the Sky do well in rebounding, especially when they have the leading rebounder in Angel Reese. And the Sky are third in second chance points.
In their first match-up, the Sky got off to quick runs in the second and fourth quarters. The Sparks have had trouble with opposing teams going on runs to start a quarter all year long. Coach Lynne Roberts talked about how they handled it against the Sky after they won last month.
"We’re learning to not think about what has just happened," Coach Roberts said. "Just attack the next play. And I thought that happened. (Kelsey Plum) hit a shot. (Azurá Stevens) hit a shot. We just answered. That’s the verb you want to use: just answer it. Don't dwell on what's happening, but just next play mentality, attack that. So they did a really good job of just not dwelling on the run and just keep chopping wood.”
The Sky are led in scoring by Ariel Atkins with 13.9 points. Kamilla Cardoso (11.6) and Angel Reese (10.8) are the other players who average in double figures. But as mentioned earlier, they struggle to score points otherwise.
Los Angeles has to take care of the ball. In their last three games, they’ve averaged 19.7 turnovers.
The Sparks did force 22 turnovers against the Lynx. And with the Sky susceptible to giveaways, they can potentially do the same thing in Chicago.
"Defensively, we've shown what we want our identity to probably be moving forward," forward Dearica Hamby said on Saturday. "Showed that we're capable of playing hard, pressuring the ball, and getting into people's face. That should be the way we should play for 40 minutes going forward."
And if the Sparks do that, they can snap this little skid they are currently in.