The Chicago Sky overcame a poor first half to avoid a loss to the winless Washington Mystics on the road Thursday night.
On the same night, the Atlanta Dream never got untracked in a home loss to the New York Liberty.
Both the Sky (4-5) and the Dream (4-4) will try to put together a more complete performance when they meet Saturday in Chicago.
Chicago trailed Washington by nine points at halftime but outscored the Mystics 25-10 in the third quarter to take control in a 79-71 outcome.
“Either you do or you don’t (have a winning effort), there’s no in between,” Sky coach Teresa Weatherspoon said she told her team at halftime.
Chennedy Carter scored a game-high 25 points off the bench and rookie Angel Reese had 16 points, 11 rebounds and five steals. Reese had a cheering section of family and friends as the game was played less than an hour’s drive from where she grew up near Baltimore.
“A lot of them were watching me since I was like 4,” Reese said. “A lot of them have seen me grow up and grow into the woman that I am right now and continue to grow into. It’s a blessing and surreal to me.”
Starting center Elizabeth Williams did not return after suffering a non-contact knee injury in the first half. She’s listed as day-to-day.
The Dream have lost two games in a row for the first time this season and three of their last four after the 78-61 loss to New York.
Atlanta, which has been outscored 147-111 in its last two games, shot just 34.4 percent against the Liberty and its 75.1 scoring average is second lowest in the WNBA.
“It’s one of those things where it’s like, we’re speechless,” Dream coach Tanisha Wright said. “I thought our effort was really poor. We weren’t a professional team. We didn’t come to do our jobs. That was from the very start.”
Allisha Gray scored 16 points to lead the Dream, which made just 3 of 21 3-point attempts.
“I think we were getting some good looks (early),” Wright said. “We got to the rim. We had two feet in the paint. Our post players got touches. Our guards got at the rim. We didn’t make shots and they pouted and we were never able to turn the tide.”
