CHICAGO — Three days after a surprising Game 1 playoff loss and a mere 19 seconds into Game 2, Kahleah Copper drained a 3-pointer from the wing, posed with her right arm still extended and turned to the Chicago Sky bench with a determined glimmer in her eye.
Nearly four full quarters were left to play, but Copper delivered an emphatic message — about herself and the Sky — with that shot.
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For teammate Courtney Vandersloot, Copper seemed to telegraph, “She’s here. She’s ready. She’s good.” For Liberty coach Sandy Brondello, the meaning was similar, but the connotations were more ominous. “Here we go,” she thought, with a sigh.
On Wednesday, the Sky had raised questions about their playoff mettle with an uncharacteristic late-game meltdown that led to a WNBA playoff-opening loss to the Liberty. On Friday, coach James Wade was oddly ruffled by questions about Copper’s health after she took a noncontact fall in practice and had to be hopped to the training room.
Saturday at Wintrust Arena, the Sky answered any lingering doubts about their ability to defend last season’s WNBA championship behind their dominant reigning finals MVP. As the city’s annual Air and Water Show dazzled outside, the Sky arguably were the most impressive show in town with a 100-62 victory against the Liberty, breaking the WNBA playoff margin of victory record — which the Sky had set last season with a 36-point win — to force a Game 3 elimination scenario Tuesday in New York.
“She just came out and let everybody know she’s still Kahleah Copper,” Wade said. And the Sky are still the Sky.
Chicago avoided an ugly early elimination in the three-game series (a new format after single-elimination opening rounds last season) with a masterful performance — perhaps the best any team has played this season. Brondello called it a “butt kicking.”
“Chicago responded the way championship teams respond,” she said.
The Sky’s ability to click asserted them once again as the most complete playoff team, making their opening playoff game loss look like a meaningless aberration rather than a serious omen.
“It was a wake-up call for us,” Vandersloot said. “We shouldn’t have had to have it, but we did. And it woke us up. We know that we came into this game with a different mentality. We knew that what got us through games in the regular season wasn’t going to do the same in the playoffs. So we were able to take it up another notch, and I think you saw a different team.”
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A darn-near flawless team.
The Sky scored 60 paint points (compared with only 24 by the Liberty), outscored the Liberty 15-0 in second-chance points and 20-5 in fast-break points while shooting 51.3 percent from the field, hitting 60.7 percent of 2-pointers. Their transition game was fueled by 14 steals — seven of which came from six players in the first quarter. The Sky defense has never looked more stifling this season than in Game 2, holding the Liberty to 20 field goals (33.3 percent) and keeping any player from scoring more than 10 points.
Copper was key to all of it. Of course. In addition to her game-high 20 points (on 8-of-16 shooting) and two first-quarter banger 3-pointers to set the tone, her defense set the standard. After guarding Betnijah Laney in Game 1, Copper switched to Sabrina Ionescu in Game 2, limiting the Liberty star to only seven points on 3-of-5 shooting a game after Ionescu exploded for 22 points on 8-of-12 shooting.
“I just want my team to be able to know that if they call on me for a switch or a matchup or whatever, then I’m going to respond,” Copper said. “It was just important for me to do what my team needed, so that’s just what I did.”
There may not be many players so relentlessly energetic and demonstrative on the court and so nonchalant off it as Copper.
When asked about her acrobatic moves driving to the basket, Copper shrugged as she explained how she effortlessly pulls off these plays. The Sky looked effortless often as they appeared to toy with the Liberty as they eased toward victory, including Candace Parker’s no-look pass (as she turned away from the play to go back up court, fully expecting the execution) to Azura Stevens.
Watch Candace Parker's eyes on this dime👀
🎥 @SportsCenter | #NoCeilingpic.twitter.com/2xAFczYZzk
— The Athletic WBB (@TheAthleticWBB) August 20, 2022
Vandersloot, generously listed at 5-foot-8, sprung over 6-2 Natasha Howard to tip a rebound to Emma Meesseman for a bucket.
Courtney Vandersloot finds Emma Meesseman with the beautiful tip pass. 🔥
(🎥: @WNBA)pic.twitter.com/Fipw9wT74G
— theScore (@theScore) August 20, 2022
Rebekah Gardner came off the bench to ping around the court like a caffeinated grasshopper to disrupt the Liberty’s offensive flow. Allie Quigley grinned as she slyly came up with another steal for the Sky.
“We couldn’t combat anything,” Brondello said.
They played with a smooth ease. But make no mistake, there’s a chip on the shoulder of the defending champs.
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Wade bristled about the attention Copper’s practice issue caused, saying the “world was turned upside down a little bit.” He also alluded to the supposed disrespect of Copper being ranked 17th on ESPN’s list of top postseason players.
“She plays both ends of the floor, and that gets undervalued a lot,” Wade said. “Her ability to be disruptive and on the other end gets us buckets and draw defenses, it sets a tone. The tone is what we need. … It’s something we expect her to do and something we lean on her to do.”
Losing Game 1 was just more fuel for the Sky. And they had some time to stew about it before returning to the court Saturday in front of 7,732 fans.
“After any loss, you want the next game to come,” Copper said. “After the game, it was like you don’t play for another couple days, and it was a drag. But I think that we did a really good job of coming back together.”
Winning, of course, is always a goal. But winning big became a personal mission for the Sky.
“It was a big emphasis,” Vandersloot said. “It was more for us to build that confidence within ourselves and know that when we play our game that we believe we can beat anybody, and we can beat them similar to tonight. We wanted to win the game, and we wanted to do it our way.”
The Sky must win on the road in an elimination game to continue their quest for a repeat. Maybe not a fair scenario for a higher-seeded defending champion. Wade has discussed he’s not thrilled with the format.
But after his team’s performance in Game 2, he’s got an anytime-anywhere mentality.
“If we play like that,” he said, “it doesn’t matter where we play. We could play on the moon.”
(Photo of Kahleah Copper: Gary Dineen / NBAE via Getty Images)
Shannon Ryan is The Athletic’s women’s basketball managing editor. She spent the previous 13 years as a college sports reporter and columnist for the Chicago Tribune, primarily covering college basketball and football. She began her journalism career covering the NFL and college sports for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
