Sky vs. Fire: Skylar Diggins Scores 15 as Seven Chicago Players Hit Double Figures to End Six-Game Skid

Chicago's June had been playing out like a sitcom nobody asked to renew. The Sky lost by one to New York. They lost by one to Dallas. Then, for a change of pace, they lost by 29 in Connecticut on Monday. Six straight losses, nearly three weeks without a win, and a Wednesday night date with a team they'd already beaten.

Skylar Diggins scored 15, six teammates also reached double figures, and Chicago beat the Portland Fire 101-78 at Wintrust Arena. The losing streak is over. The sitcom lives to see another episode, and this one had an actual happy ending.

Twenty-Four Minutes of Actual Basketball

Portland came out firing. Megan DiLeo and Emily Engstler opened with 3s for a 6-0 lead, and Sarah Ashlee Barker's 3 made it 13-8 before Chicago woke up. Sydney Taylor had nine in the first quarter, and a 9-0 Sky run put them ahead 17-13. Barker's second 3 gave it back to Portland at 21-19.

The Sky answered that with 11 straight spilling into the second quarter, and it looked like they might be off and running at 30-21. Portland had other ideas. An 8-0 run got the Fire within 30-29, and 3s from Teja Oblak and Karlie Samuelson actually put them ahead 35-32. Chicago's bench took over from there, with Jacy Sheldon, Aicha Coulibaly and Natasha Cloud scoring down the stretch, and it went to the half at 46-39.

The third quarter opened with DiLeo's 3 and a Bridget Carleton jumper to get Portland within 46-44, and DiLeo's short floater tied it at 50 with 5:56 to go. That was a real game. It had been a real game for 24 minutes, and then it stopped being one.

Seven in Double Figures

Diggins led the way with 15 points, six assists and three rebounds, going 5-of-10 from the field and 5-of-5 at the line. Her fingerprints were everywhere in the stretch that decided things, with 10 of her points coming in the third.

Everybody else took a turn. Taylor scored 14 on 5-of-8 shooting with four assists. Sheldon had a season-high 14, per the team, off the bench, adding three assists and two blocks in 22 minutes. Kamilla Cardoso had 13 points and eight rebounds on 6-of-7 shooting. Azura Stevens had a messy but productive night, shooting 3-of-13 and still finishing with 11 points, 11 rebounds and five assists for her third double-double of the season. Gabriela Jaquez added 10, and Coulibaly set a career high with 10 in 15 minutes. Natasha Cloud just missed joining the club with nine, but her 3-of-3 shooting and team-best plus-26 made her case anyway. Chicago's 27 assists on 36 made baskets were a real sign of life for an offense that had managed 63 points two nights earlier.

DiLeo led Portland with 17 on 6-of-12 shooting, and Barker had 13. Engstler scored 10 on 4-of-6 but picked up five fouls and an early flagrant. Carla Leite scored 10, most of it at the line, going 1-of-8 from the floor and 7-of-8 on free throws to go with six assists. Carleton managed just seven on 2-of-6, and Nyadiew Puoch went 0-of-6 off the bench, with five of those misses from deep.

Fifteen of the Next Seventeen

Once DiLeo tied it at 50, the Sky scored 15 of the next 17 points, and Diggins supplied eight of them. She made two free throws, answered another DiLeo floater with a 15-foot pull-up, went back to the line, then floated one in from 10 feet. Sheldon's 3 at 3:48 and a Cardoso drive at 3:22 finished a 12-0 run inside that stretch, and just like that, a tie game had become 65-52.

Portland never recovered. Chicago led 75-60 after three, opened the fourth with two quick baskets and eventually led by 27, with an 8-0 run in the middle of the quarter to remove any lingering suspense. In a season where this team had found so many ways to give games away, there was something nearly therapeutic about watching it take one and refuse to hand it back. Chicago finished 36-of-69 from the field, 52 percent, while making only six 3s. For a group that had been losing every kind of game for weeks, winning by 23 while dropping the 3-point battle by 12 points felt like a useful reminder of what works: Cardoso at the rim, guards attacking, and a bench that kept the pressure on.

The Numbers That Explain It

• The paint: Chicago scored 56 inside to Portland's 30.
• The bench: The Sky's reserves won 38-21, and Cloud's plus-26 was the best number on the floor.
• Second chances: Chicago turned 12 offensive rebounds into 22 second-chance points.
• The fast break: Sky 13, Fire 0.
• The Fire's shooting: Portland made 10 of its 25 3s and outscored Chicago by 12 from deep, then lost by 23 anyway, because it shot just 38 percent overall.

A Win to Build On, or at Least Stand On

Chicago moves to 5-12 and 2-6 at home, with its first win since June 5. The Sky also beat Portland 98-83 on the road in the season opener, so they've now handled the Fire twice, and they'll get a third crack on Friday, when the regular-season series wraps up back in Chicago.

Portland slips to 8-10 and 2-5 on the road after a week between games. The Fire had won two of their previous three, a respectable spot for an expansion club, but this was a step backward, and the free-throw line told part of the story, with Chicago outscoring them 23-16 there.

Finding the Keys

Snapping a six-game skid against a team you've already beaten isn't a hero's journey. It's closer to finally finding your car keys after three weeks of looking in the same drawer. Still, when you've been locked out that long, you don't stop to ask whether the keys were impressive. You just get in and drive.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Additional details from the Associated Press and the Chicago Sky.