AP
Kahleah Copper finished with a game-high 22 points on 60% shooting and went 2-for-3 from behind the arc. Candace Parker added 13 points and Courtney Vandersloot had four and 11 assists.
Chicago sports fans follow one rule: If you win, we’ll show up.
The Sky, one win away from their first WNBA title after Friday night’s 86-50 win over the Phoenix Mercury, have given the city the type of team it has had few of recently — a potential champion.
“Sky in four” chants erupted in Wintrust Arena as the final 60 seconds ticked by.
Upon their return from Phoenix, the Sky were greeted with posters and banners at their practice facility in Deerfield. In Chicago, City Hall’s lobby was lined with Sky flags, and for the first time, the famous lions outside the Art Institute’s Michigan Avenue entrance were fitted in Sky threads.
Most significant of all the ways the Sky have been embraced over the last week, Wintrust Arena was sold out for Games 3 and 4.
“It’s the atmosphere you dream about as a kid,” Courtney Vandersloot said. “Playing in the WNBA Finals in front of a sold-out arena says [everything].”
Before Game 3 Phoenix coach Sandy Brondello said her team had to shut down Kahleah Copper in the paint and force her to hit from three. Copper did both. She finished with 22 points on 60% shooting and went 2-for-3 from behind the arc.
Candace Parker added 13 points and Vandersloot had four and 11 assists. Every Sky player scored Friday night.
The Sky’s 22-point halftime lead over the Mercury tied the largest halftime lead in a WNBA Finals game. The last time that happened was in Game 1 of the 2014 Finals, when the Sky trailed the Mercury by 22.
The Sky’s 36-point win was the largest margin of victory in the Finals’ history.
Of the nine teams that trailed 2-1 in a best-of-five Finals since the league began playing them in 2005, four have come back to force a Game 5 and win the title. So their series lead doesn’t mean they can relax.
The Sky are going for their first title and the Mercury their fourth, which would tie the Houston Comets and Minnesota Lynx for most in the league. The WNBA has three one-time champions: The Sacramento Monarchs (2005), who folded in 2009, the Indiana Fever (2012) and the Washington Mystics (2019).
What would a title mean to the Sky and Chicago? Parker, who became the fourth player in WNBA history with 1,000 career playoff points Wednesday night, said she can’t put it into words.
To reach that mountaintop, the Sky have to slay the dragon. Not the Mercury, but Diana Taurasi. Friday night, the Sky held Taurasi to just five points on 10% shooting.
Whether or not Taurasi should have been playing Friday night was a question fans were contemplating.
In Game 2 she shoved official Tiara Cruse when Cruse was attempting to separate Copper and Cunningham. Cruse briefly paused when she saw it was Taurasi before allowing her to help Cunningham up. The league announced Thursday that she would not be suspended and instead was fined $2,500.
“To be quite honest she went in to help her teammate,” Brondello said. “I don’t think she saw who was around her. Isn’t that what you teach your players? Someone needs help, you go help them.”
Because of their No. 6 seed, the Sky knew their road to the Finals wasn’t going to be easy. And they knew nothing about this series would be easy, despite the Mercury being seeded fifth.
Friday night, they made things look easy.
They crowded Brittney Griner’s space, holding her to 16 points and just two rebounds, got into passing lanes forcing 12 Mercury turnovers and outscored the Mercury 36-14 in the paint.
With nine minutes left in the game Taurasi, Griner and Skylar Diggins-Smith went to the bench for the night.
The Sky have the potential to secure the Championship Sunday in Game 4 which is slated for 2 p.m. If they play like they did Friday, they will.