{"id":43494,"date":"2021-10-18T11:44:42","date_gmt":"2021-10-18T15:44:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=43494"},"modified":"2021-10-18T11:44:42","modified_gmt":"2021-10-18T15:44:42","slug":"chicago-sky-three-takeaways-from-game-4-win-over-phoenix-mercury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2021\/10\/18\/chicago-sky-three-takeaways-from-game-4-win-over-phoenix-mercury\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Sky: Three Takeaways from Game 4 Win Over Phoenix Mercury"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Chicago Sky were not the favorites to win the WNBA title. After all, they finished the regular season as the No. 6 seed, and they posted a mediocre 16-16 record.<\/p>\n<h2>Chicago Sky: Three takeaways from Game 4 win vs. Phoenix Mercury<\/h2>\n<p>Despite their unimpressive regular season, they found themselves just one win shy of the team&#8217;s first WNBA title, following a blowout 86-50 win in Game 3. After a lopsided loss in the previous contest between these two teams, the Mercury came out with a sense of urgency and led by as many as 14 points.<\/p>\n<p>However, the Sky managed to overcome the double-digit deficit en route to a come-from-behind 80-74 victory.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">This one is for you, Chicago. \ud83c\udfc6 <\/p>\n<p>The Chicago Sky are your 2021 WNBA Champions. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Pv4KiTzLIA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/Pv4KiTzLIA<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Chicago Sky (@chicagosky) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/chicagosky\/status\/1449846799267631104?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 17, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Here are the three biggest takeaways from Chicago&#8217;s memorable win.<\/p>\n<h3>3. The Sky turn it around in the fourth quarter.<\/h3>\n<p>The Mercury led by what could have been an insurmountable 14-point lead in the third quarter. And they appeared to be on their way to extending the series to a fifth and deciding game as they led by seven points with less than five minutes left in the final frame.<\/p>\n<p>However, the Sky turned it up on the defensive end of the floor. In fact, the Sky finished the contest on a 15-2 run. And they outscored the Mercury by a 26-11 margin to claim their first championship. As they have done all season, the Chicago Sky remained resilient in the face of adversity.<\/p>\n<h3>2. Candace Parker helps deliver a title to her hometown team<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/wnba\/players\/p\/parkeca01w.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Candace Parker<\/strong><\/a> raised a few eyebrows when she opted to sign with the Sky after spending her entire career with the Los Angeles Sparks. While a player coming back to play for the city they grew up in makes for a good story, the season was anything but easy for Parker.<\/p>\n<p>She battled multiple ankle injuries during the season which limited her to 23 games. And because of her absence from the lineup, the Sky endured a painful seven-game skid that could have derailed the team&#8217;s playoff hopes.<\/p>\n<p>But as she has done throughout her career, Parker rose to the challenge when it was needed. She went on a personal 7-0 run in the third quarter to help the Sky remain within striking distance.<\/p>\n<p>And with the Sky trailing 72-69, Parker nailed an open three-pointer that sent the crowd at Wintrust Arena into a wild frenzy.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">CANDACE CLUTCH PARKER \ud83e\udd76<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udcfa ESPN <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Dv6dqpI1nV\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/Dv6dqpI1nV<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; WNBA (@WNBA) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WNBA\/status\/1449844291493408780?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 17, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Early on, Parker wasn&#8217;t much of a factor as she scored just four points on 1-for-6 shooting in the first half. But when it was all said and done, the now two-time champion had her best all-around game of the postseason. Her final stat line included 16 points, 13 rebounds, five assists, and four steals. The Sky signed Parker to be a leader for this team, and as she <a href=\"https:\/\/todayuknews.com\/sports\/is-there-anything-candace-parker-cant-do\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">stated<\/a> after Game 1 of these Finals, she was the calm before the storm and the storm when everyone is calm.<\/p>\n<p>Mission accomplished.<\/p>\n<h3>1. Allie Quigley carries the scoring load for the Sky<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/wnba\/players\/q\/quiglal01w.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Allie Quigley<\/strong><\/a> scored 18 and 19 points, respectively, in the first two games of this WNBA Final series. However, she was somewhat quiet in Game 3, as she scored nine points on 3-for-6 shooting in Chicago&#8217;s 86-50 victory in Game 3.<\/p>\n<p>But in Game 4, she delivered big time, scoring a team-high 26 points to go along with five rebounds. She also shot an impressive 50 percent from the three-point line, knocking down five of her 10 attempts from beyond the arc. To put this stat into perspective, the Sky shot just 7-for-25 overall from long range.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Allie Quigley Scores 26 Points As Sky Win First WNBA Title\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PBQUPZCuuPg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Not only that, but Quigley scored 11 of her 26 points (including three three-pointers) in the fourth quarter to help the Sky overcome that 14-point deficit. So while Parker certainly played a part in the team&#8217;s closeout victory, Quigley was huge as well in helping the team win its first-ever WNBA title.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<br \/>\n<a id=\"vun_xm8CRidMaIKeDjpSvQ\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/840326852\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'vun_xm8CRidMaIKeDjpSvQ',sig:'oS2qFiGekpdhg3qufvu6XaKPMZoJQwLp9wqGWJnK-g8=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'840326852',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Chicago Sky were not the favorites to win the WNBA title. After all, they finished the regular season as the No. 6 seed, and they posted a mediocre 16-16 record. Chicago Sky: Three takeaways from Game 4 win vs. Phoenix Mercury Despite their unimpressive regular season, they found themselves just one win shy of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3780,"featured_media":43534,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608],"tags":[2957,4356,3861],"class_list":["post-43494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","tag-chicago-sky","tag-phoenix-mercury","tag-wnba-finals"],"modified_by":"Kunning Chen, Department Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3780"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}