It has been confirmed that Angel Reese and the Chicago Sky have been eliminated from WNBA playoff contention following the Los Angeles Spark’s dramatic win over the Dallas Wings
Angel Reese and the Chicago Sky were almost certainly not going to make the WNBA playoffs this season. And now it has been confirmed that they definitely won’t be.
Wednesday night’s WNBA clash between the Los Angeles Sparks and Dallas Wings saw the former come out on to, 81-80, thanks to a late-game-winner from Kelsey Plum. The Sparks star scored with time expiring at Crypto.com Arena, prompting her to swear in her post-game interview.
The game will also be remembered for Paige Bueckers’ spectacular performance for Dallas, which saw the Wings guard drop 44 points on the Sparks and all but cement her winning of the WNBA’s Rookie of the Year award.
And in winning the game against the Wings, both they and the Sky were eliminated from playoff contention, not that they had much hope of doing so given the way their respective seasons have played out.
“Update: With the @LASparks 81-80 victory tonight over the Wings, both the Dallas Wings and Chicago Sky have now officially been eliminated from WNBA Playoffs contention,” said the official WNBA account on X.
The Wings currently have a 9-27 record, while the Sky sit at 8-26. The latter have struggled this term, in part due to the injuries Reese has dealt with throughout her sophomore season.
The 23-year-old made her first WNBA appearance since late July when she faced off against the Seattle Storm earlier this week. She had been dealing with a back injury, but impressed during her return, scoring 19 points.
But, as has been the case for the majority of Chicago’s season, they lost, falling 94-88 to Seattle.
However, for Reese, she was delighted just to be out on the court again with her teammates. “So happy to be back playing the game I love,” Reese wrote on X.
The Sky do not have any intention of rushing Reese back to her full minutes capacity, instead intending to restrict her game time until she is fully fit.
She played 25 minutes against the Storm, with Reese admitting that her minutes restriction “sucks.”
“I was trying to control what I can control tonight,” Reese told reporters after the game.
“I was only supposed to play 25 minutes, and that sucks. I’m not a player that wants to be on a restriction of any kind. But I did what I could do to try and help the team win.
She added: “It felt great. I love basketball. It’s my pride and joy. Sitting on the sidelines is no fun. Sitting and just doing rehab every single day is no fun.”
“Also, just sitting and figuring out what’s going on with myself. And I think I learned a lot about myself over the last three, four weeks.
“But I’m just super grateful for everybody that was in my corner, my teammates, my coaches, they were here for me through the whole process. So I’m really happy to be back with the team.”
Leave a Reply