Dallas Wings & Chicago Sky Were Down Bad. Only One Finished Like It Was Personal.

The Chicago Sky, and Dallas Wings both came into their game against each other with high expectations to start the season. Both so far have underachieved and felt the pressures of it.

For the Sky, they came into this contest against Dallas 0-4, running out of moral victories and starting to look like a team that could use an exorcism. For Dallas, they came off their first win of the season and were in a mode to start going streaking like Matthew Kidman in the Girl Next Door.

Instead, it was Chicago who now has the opportunity to walk into Dallas on a winning streak of their own. The Sky shared the rock like it was Thanksgiving dinner, and left with a 97–92 win that felt like more than just a notch in the W column.

Kamilla Cardoso dropped a loud 23 points on 9-of-13 shooting, and she didn’t just do it in the flow—she demanded the moment. Cardoso started the game going 12 points in the first quarter and never looked back.

 

“Today I played with confidence, Said Cardoso.”

Not one lie detected.

Cardoso throughout this game was aggressive, smart, and straight-up mean in the paint.

Meanwhile, Cardoso’s teammate Courtney Vandersloot is already lobbying for Cardoso to be a centerpiece:

 

“She needs to touch the ball a lot. We need to play through her more often.”

Vandersloot more importantly, finished the game as Chicago’s leading scorer in franchise history.

 

“I try not to get attached to individual records because records are meant to be broken.”

The veteran point guard had an amazing game and played like she had dinner plans with Destiny’s Child—calm, composed, and clutch. Sloot finished with 13 points, 9 dimes, and about 47 winning plays that don’t show up on the stat sheet.

 

“We weren’t just focused on the win,” she said. “We were focused on making winning plays.”

The Sky Were 0-4. Nobody Panicked.

Four straight losses will break some teams. Not this one.

 

“When you lose 4 games, teams can start to disconnect,” Sloot said. “That’s not the case with this team.”

And that’s not just lip service—Chicago looked connected. Communicative. Tough. Like they actually like each other.

Ariel Atkins showed up with some late-game clamps and a huge bucket to seal the victory.

Atkins finished with

This team is still rough around the edges, but they played like a squad that’s tired of the “moral victory” talk. They had 28 assists on 37 made buckets.

That’s not luck.

That’s growth.

That’s chemistry.

Dallas is 1-4 and Trying to Hold the Rope

Look—the Wings are in the trenches right now.

They’ve had big expectations on the season this year and it has not panned out the way they thought. Maybe it’s wishful thinking, hopeful optimism, but they want to win and reach the playoffs.

Although Dallas fought the entire game, this loss was tough.

Even on a night where No. 1 pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft Paige Bueckers became the league leader in the WNBA in assists. P.s. Bueckers is not even top 10 in turnovers.

Bueckers also this season is third in steals, and sixth in blocks.

Meanwhile, Bueckers running backcourt mate in Arike Ogunbowale had herself a monster game. Arike scored 14 points in the third quarter alone. Additionally, she hit a lot of clutch shots in the fourth quarter. Ogunbowale finished the game with her best performance of the season. Ogunbowale was able to score 37 Points (on 14/25) shooting, hitting half of her 12 three point attempts nailing 6 threes in the process, dropping seven dimes, grabbing five rebounds and getting a steal for good measure.

Between Arike and Paige the backcourt looked exactly like how Dallas envisoned it before the season began.

 

“We took a step forward in chemistry,” Arike said after dropping 20 points. “Still not where we want it to be.”

There’s a lot of truth in that.

Bueckers made every right read, and Arike hit some vintage clutch pull-ups.

But the Sky hunted mismatches late, and Dallas still hasn’t figured out how to close a game without relying on Arike to play superhero ball.

Teaira McCowan came off the bench and got into a beautiful back-and-forth with Cardoso in the post.

 

“I do… I love to go back and forth and see who can bang out the best… pause,” she said.

It was the most “WNBA after dark” quote of the season and instantly deserves a t-shirt.

Two Teams, One Identity Crisis

Both these squads are still figuring it out. Chicago is trying to prove they’re more than a vibes-and-potential team. Dallas is trying to turn raw talent into something sustainable. The Sky are building around vets and rookies at the same time. The Wings are too—but they’re also doing it without their All-Star forward or their floor general from last year.

It’s messy. It’s frustrating. But it’s real.

And sometimes the games that don’t feel glamorous? They show you exactly who a team wants to be.

Vandersloot said it plainly.

 

“It’s really important for me to leave [this franchise] better than when I came. That’s a big reason why I came back.”

And if the Sky can bottle up this version of themselves—the one that passes, defends, and plays like every bucket means something—they just might.

For now? Mission in progress.