WASHINGTON — The Sky’s 2023 season, by many accounts, has been harrowing.
From the exodus of stars to injuries to key contributors to the eventual resignation of championship-winning coach/general manager James Wade, nothing has gone according to plan. Despite it all, the Sky still have an opportunity to make franchise history with a fifth consecutive playoff appearance.
“That’s something to motivate [us],” Kahleah Copper told the Sun-Times. “It’s something to have pride about. I want to make the playoffs, and I want to be part of Sky history.”
Former Sky coach/general manager Pokey Chatman led the team to four straight playoff appearances, including a run in 2014 that ended with a loss to the Mercury in the Finals in a sweep, from 2013 to 2016. Wade was at the helm for the Sky’s latest postseason streak that started with their playoff return in 2019 after failing to qualify in back-to-back seasons.
To secure a playoff berth, the Sky have work to do, and it starts with the fourth quarter.
The Sky are 11th in the league in points in the fourth quarter, averaging 18.4. They are eighth in rebounds (8.0) and seventh in free-throw attempts. Against the Liberty on Friday night, the Sky watched a nine-point deficit balloon to 23 before eventually losing by 16.
“It’s about being in those battles and figuring out ways to just push through,” Courtney Williams said.
“Experiences are your best teachers, being so close, getting our feelings hurt by the end of the game. We are just going to keep getting our feelings hurt until we figure it out.”
Williams added that the recipe for improvement isn’t black and white. The Sky’s only option, she said, is to go through it and allow those challenges to help them build chemistry. The problem with that is the Sky only have 11 games left in the regular season.
“It’s not rocket science,” interim coach/general manager Emre Vatansever said. “We have to have the mindset that we’re eighth, and if we want to climb up, we have to win some games. It’s there. The game was there again [Friday]. [We have to] turn it up and stay there. You can’t let any mistakes affect you.”
All week, Vatansever has been talking about opportunities to make a jump in the standings. After squandering a chance to move past the Lynx on Tuesday — they lost 88-79 to Minnesota — the Sky will have an opportunity to move into a tie for seventh place with a game Sunday against the Mystics.
Much like the Sky, the Mystics have had to navigate the season without key players, including star Elena Delle Donne (left ankle), who has been out since before the All-Star break. According to the Washington Post, Delle Donne might return Sunday.
After the league-leading Aces, Liberty and Sun, three games are all that separate the fourth-place Wings from the eighth-place Sky. The Aces and Liberty have clinched playoff berths, and the Sun are on the brink. The race for the last five playoff spots likely will come down to the last week of the regular season.
The Sparks, Mercury, Storm and Fever are on the outside looking in. Of the Sky’s remaining 11 games, only two are against those bottom-four teams — road games against the Sparks on Aug. 29 and against the Fever on Sept. 5.
“Every team knows that the playoffs are a reset,” Williams said. “Anything that happens before the playoffs doesn’t matter.
‘‘So if we get there, anything can happen.”
