Your Day in Women’s Basketball, July 31: Sky’s Vandersloot moves up assist leaderboard

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA - MAY 25: Courtney Vandersloot #22 of the Chicago Sky brings the ball up the court against the Minnesota Lynx during their game at Target Center on May 25, 2019 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Sam Wasson/Getty Images)
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA - MAY 25: Courtney Vandersloot #22 of the Chicago Sky brings the ball up the court against the Minnesota Lynx during their game at Target Center on May 25, 2019 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Sam Wasson/Getty Images)

Sky’s Courtney Vandersloot passing at an unprecedented rate

If you haven’t heard by now, the Chicago Sky are rolling. As in the past, Courtney Vandersloot’s playmaking abilities are a big reason for that. So it came as no surprise on Thursday when the talented guard moved into fifth place on the all-time assists leaderboard, passing Becky Hammon.

Here’s the thing about Vandersloot, though: she is doing it at an absolutely unprecedented rate. I mean, just look at this graph from The Next’s Nick Niendorf. It’s just unfair how good she is at passing. Hats off to her.

Vandersloot wasn’t the only one to break a record this week. On Tuesday, Sylvia Fowles passed Rebekkah Brunson to become the league’s all-time leading rebounder. But the story isn’t just that she broke the record: it’s how she got there.

After the Lynx’s Karima Christmas-Kelly went down, it was hard to know how Minnesota would try to replace her. On Thursday, the Lynx waived Christmas-Kelly and added veteran Erica McCall, who was waived by the Dream and thus, still in the bubble.

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“We’ll see,” Reeve said of McCall. “She’s a good rebounder. I don’t think you should expect to see heavy minutes tonight necessarily — or ever. It’s more just to bolster that post group so that we’re making sure that we have bodies to get through this thing.”

Dallas Wings guard Allisha Gray didn’t just bring her sweet shooting stroke to the bubble: she brought her skills on the sticks.

Gray definitely has mixed feelings on the (shall we say) sometimes-toxic platform.

“Being on Twitch is fun,” Gray said.“The pro is you get to interact with people and people get to see a different side of you. The con is for some reason, whatever, I do not know, that if they beat you on the video game you get a message like ‘this isn’t the WNBA.’ Like, what does the WNBA have to do with a video game? They be like ‘imagine trying to dunk, but can’t dunk in real life’ and I’m like ‘well technically a lot of us play video games that we actually can’t do in real life.’ So it’s a lot of like stereotypical stuff, but other than that it’s fun.”

The Mercury haven’t started strong, cursing me and my second-place projection for the team (yes, it will continue to sting). This is no fault of guard Bria Hartley, who tied her career-high point total on Wednesday with 26 points.

Thus far, the Mercury have struggled mightily on defense, and it’s hard to see many avenues that the squad can take to remedy its game on that end of the court. When you allow an entire team to shoot 51.4% from the floor, you know you’re in for a rough night. Phoenix is done with excuses. Let’s hope they pick it up soon.

There is dominance, and then there is whatever the Las Vegas Aces did to the Atlanta Dream on Wednesday. After a last-minute loss to the Sky over the weekend, the Aces needed this one to get back on track. Without Liz Cambage or Kelsey Plum, Las Vegas’ offense looks different than last season, but it still has the ability to put up big points with A’ja Wilson as the primary option.

Looking ahead, the Aces hope to sign a versatile wing to add to its bench depth.

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