The Rookie of the Year race for the 2024 WNBA season is back on! Angel Reese saw action first after the league took a break for the Olympics. This Chicago Sky rookie picked up where she left off and did not hesitate to prove why she was deserving to be named an All-Star. Her first challenge back? Well, it was none other than a returning Kahleah Cooper and her Phoenix Mercury. Did the star start to get the edge over Caitlin Clark in this game?
The rookie out of the Sky system became the first player in league history to notch over 300 rebounds in their first 25 games, per StatMamba.
Angel Reese was nothing short of phenomenal against the Mercury. She found it easy to get inside the paint and find mismatches. As a result, the rookie out of the Sky system produced 11 points. She did suffer from inefficiency because her shots only fell four times amid her 14 attempts from the field. Her free throws were also not falling which was a big issue. By the end, she only knocked down three out of the eight shots that were given to her.
Nonetheless, Reese still performed well on the defensive end. She met an opposing Mercury player's shot at the apex once to net a block. The rookie made light work of tracking the Kahleah Cooper-led squad's passing lanes and their ball movement. This resulted in her getting two steals. More importantly, she was a dominant force inside the paint and when fighting for boards. Reese ended up having 15 rebounds with eight of them coming from the offensive side. Unfortunately, the Sky could not capitalize on these second-chance opportunities to get back into the game.
Kahleah Cooper smokes the Sky on her return
The most proper word to describe this matchup was suffocate. On all fronts, the Mercury was just better than the Sky. No one embodied that hunger more than Cooper. She took 19 shots and 12 of them fell straight into the bottom of the basket. The fact that she also went 60% from three made it an insane outing which all led to her total clock in at 29 points.
It was not just Cooper who blazed up. Brittney Griner was still fresh off her Olympics outing and all that built-up experience just came out at the expense of their opponents. She battled valiantly for boards against Reese. When the game ended, Griner had nine rebounds which paired up well with 23 points.
Overall, it was a gritty matchup that the Sky could learn from. Will this propel Reese into going into a spree to catch Caitlin Clark in the ROY race?
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