Sky vs. Storm: Kamilla Cardoso Posts 22 and 12 as Chicago Ends a Six-Game Road Losing Streak

Jade Melbourne had a layup to tie it at the buzzer, and for one beat Climate Pledge Arena believed it was about to witness the most improbable finish of a very long Seattle season. It did not go.

The Chicago Sky held on for an 82-80 win on Sunday, getting 22 points and 12 rebounds from Kamilla Cardoso and 20 points from Natasha Cloud to end a six-game losing streak on the road. They needed all of it, because a lead that reached 21 points spent the second half evaporating one possession at a time.

A 21-Point Lead, Slowly Leaking

Seattle made the first basket of the game, which turned out to be the only good news for a while. Chicago answered with an 11-0 run, Cardoso had six of those, and the Storm never led again. It was 23-11 after one and 46-29 at the half, and Seattle's offense looked like it was still circling the parking garage.

Then the third quarter flipped. It started with Dominique Malonga at the rim and at the foul line, then came 3s on consecutive trips from Melbourne and rookie Awa Fam, and by the 3:38 mark the Storm had reeled off 11 straight. A game that felt finished was suddenly 60-55 going into the fourth.

Chicago pushed it back to 71-59 early in the final quarter, and Seattle came right back with nine in a row, capped by an Ezi Magbegor drive at the 4:53 mark. From there, the two teams traded blows the way tired teams do, mostly at the foul line. Magbegor's 24-foot 3 made it 76-73. Elizabeth Williams scored on a Courtney Vandersloot feed with 1:38 left for a 78-74 lead, and that was Chicago's last field goal of the day.

Seattle kept coming anyway. Malonga hit two free throws, Fam hit two more, and it was 79-78 with 20.3 left. Cloud answered with a pair. Malonga made two again to make it 81-80. Vandersloot got the second of two to drop with about 10 seconds to go, and that left Melbourne with one last chance at the other end. The miss ended what felt like the longest five minutes of Chicago's month.

Cardoso and Cloud Brought the Muscle

Cardoso was a problem all afternoon. She shot 7 of 15 from the field and 8 of 11 at the line, pulled down five offensive rebounds and blocked three shots while carrying five fouls. She also finished a minus-9, a number that says more about how wild the second half got than about her.

Cloud's 20 came with a perfect 9 of 9 at the line, eight rebounds, three assists and three steals, and she only needed 12 shots to get there. Vandersloot was the quiet engine, stuffing the box score with four steals, five assists, five rebounds and 15 points, the sort of line that never trends and always matters.

The rest of the rotation had a rough shooting day. DiJonai Carrington went 3 of 13, Azura Stevens went 1 of 7, and the Sky shot 36 percent as a team. They survived by rebounding, defending and getting to the stripe, which is a respectable way to win ugly.

Seattle's frontcourt was terrific in defeat. Malonga had 19 points, 13 rebounds and four blocks, and she went 9 of 10 at the line. Magbegor scored 17 on 7-of-12 shooting with five blocks of her own, and Fam gave the Storm 14 points off the bench. Melbourne had 11 points, six assists and five rebounds, though she needed 13 shots to get those points and the last one will stick with her.

The Game Was Won in the First Quarter

Here is the number that will annoy Seattle most: the Storm won the second half 51-36. They shot better than Chicago for the game, 40 percent to 36, and they blocked 13 shots. By almost any measure of the final 20 minutes, they were the better team.

They also scored 11 points in the first quarter. That 23-11 opening, built on Cardoso's work inside and an 11-0 run that swung the whole afternoon, handed Chicago a cushion that shrank all day and never fully disappeared. You can outplay a team for 20 minutes and still get billed for the first 10.

Chicago deserves its share of credit for how it closed, too. Seattle never actually drew level in the final five minutes. Every time the Storm got within a possession, the Sky found a way to the line and made enough to stay in front.

Stats That Matter

• Blocks: Seattle 13, Chicago 7. Magbegor had five, Malonga had four, and that is 20 rejected shots in a single game.
• Rebounds: Sky 47, Storm 34, including a 12-5 edge on the offensive glass.
• Free throws: Chicago went 22 of 27, and nine of its last 11 points came at the line.
• Second half: Storm 51, Sky 36, which is how a 17-point halftime lead turns into a coin flip.

Payback, and Another Close Call for Seattle

Chicago is 13-22 overall and 5-13 on the road, and this was its first road win since a 77-66 result at Phoenix on July 7. It was also payback for a 97-88 loss in this same building six days earlier, a game that ended an 11-game Seattle losing streak, and it gave the Sky a 2-1 edge in the season series. Next up is a home game against New York on Tuesday.

Seattle slides to 7-30 overall and 5-13 at home. The Storm have now lost back-to-back home games by two points each, following an 84-82 loss to Portland on Friday. They visit Dallas next Sunday.

A Lead on Low Battery

Chicago's lead behaved like a phone on a long travel day: full at lunch, in the red by dinner and somehow alive just long enough to get you home. Nobody in Chicago will want to rewatch the second half. For a team that had not won on the road in more than five weeks, the only stat that matters is the one at the top of the box score.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details as reported by the Associated Press.