Sun vs. Sky: Brittney Griner Becomes WNBA's Career Blocks Leader as Connecticut Rolls 92-63

There is a version of this story where a 2-15 team beating a 4-11 team on a Monday in June barely rates a mention. Brittney Griner made sure nobody gets to write that version. In the third quarter at Mohegan Sun Arena, she rejected a Kamilla Cardoso shot for her fourth block of the night, the 878th of her career, and the WNBA had a new career blocks leader.

Griner finished with 14 points, eight rebounds and those four blocks in only 22 minutes, and the Connecticut Sun buried the Chicago Sky 92-63 for their third win of the season. The late Margo Dydek's mark had been sitting there since 2008. It belongs to someone else now.

A Close Game for About 14 Minutes

Early on, this was as ugly as you'd expect from two teams with a combined six wins. Connecticut led 16-12 after one despite shooting 29.4 percent, because Chicago was shooting 16.7 percent. The Sky's 12 points, the Sun noted, were Chicago's second-lowest first-quarter total of the season. The Sky were still in it at 23-all with 6:06 left in the second.

Then the Sun went on the kind of run that makes a coach put a game on mute. Kennedy Burke drilled a 3 for 28-23, reaching 1,000 career points on the shot, and Connecticut kept going until it was 37-23 at the 2:51 mark. That's 14 straight points, and 31 in the quarter overall. By the break it was 47-30, and Chicago looked finished.

The third offered no relief. Griner's record block arrived in the period, and the Sun's lead kept growing around it, with a 12-0 run across the quarter break taking the score from 60-44 to 72-44. Connecticut's lead reached 33 at its peak, and both benches were emptied with a little over two minutes left. Cardoso scored three straight Chicago baskets in the final minutes, Raegan Beers and Gianna Kneepkens answered for the home side with eight points between them late, and nobody confused any of that with drama.

Griner Gets Her Moment, and the Sun Share It

The record will define this night, but it wasn't a one-woman show. Griner also went 6-of-10 from the floor with three assists, and she finished plus-18 in her limited minutes. She didn't score her first points until the second quarter, which tells you how little offense she needed to dominate the evening. It's hard to overstate what 878 blocks means. That's 878 times somebody thought they had a clean look at the rim and found out otherwise.

Olivia Nelson-Ododa might have had the best all-around game of anyone. Her 11 points and 15 rebounds made up her first double-double of the season, and she added three assists, two steals and two blocks at plus-24. Charlisse Leger-Walker stuffed the box with 13 points, seven rebounds and five assists. Leila Lacan scored 12 on 5-of-6 shooting with three steals, and Aaliyah Edwards put up 11 in just 14 minutes off the bench. Diamond Miller had nine points and four assists at plus-19. Burke's milestone came with eight points and a game-best plus-28, and Saniya Rivers scored her 500th career point during the third quarter. Twenty-one Sun assists against Chicago's 10 tell you which team was actually playing together.

Chicago's lone real bright spot was Cardoso, who had 16 points and 14 rebounds on 6-of-12 shooting. Everyone else was a horror show from the floor. Azura Stevens went 3-of-12 for 11 points, Sydney Taylor went 2-of-12 for 10 and missed seven of her eight 3s, and Natasha Cloud finished 1-of-6 at minus-27. Skylar Diggins went 0-for-7 from the floor, yet she still climbed to No. 7 on the WNBA's career list for made free throws, which at least gave the visitors one positive footnote. Jacy Sheldon scored six while making just one basket in six tries, and that pretty much sums up the Chicago offense: no flow, no rhythm, and a lot of waiting around for a whistle.

Three Minutes and 15 Seconds

The turning point was that second-quarter run. At 23-all, a Sky team that had dropped five straight still had life, and a Sun team with two wins all season could have started feeling the weight of its record. Instead, Connecticut's defense clamped down, and Chicago went 3:15 without scoring a point. By the time the Sky got back on the board, the deficit was 14, and they never seriously threatened again.

Stats That Matter

• 17-of-73: Chicago's shooting, a 23 percent night that included 4-of-30 from 3-point range.
• 25 vs. 17: Chicago's made free throws and made field goals, respectively. When your foul line is your best offense, things have gone badly.
• 52-24 and 14-0: Connecticut's edges in the paint and on the fast break.
• 49-28: The Sun's rebounding margin, with 39 of theirs on the defensive end.
• 9-2: Connecticut's advantage in blocks, because Griner wasn't the only one enjoying herself.

What It Means

Connecticut moves to 3-15 and 2-7 at home, ending a seven-game losing streak. The team also says it was its first win inside Mohegan Sun Arena, and the schedule backs that up, since the only earlier home win came at Hartford's PeoplesBank Arena. The Sun host Washington on Friday.

Chicago falls to 4-12 and 3-6 on the road, and it has now lost six straight. The season series with Connecticut stands at 1-1 after the Sky's 85-80 win on June 5. They'll try to stop the slide at home against the Portland Fire on Wednesday.

Standings Change, 878 Doesn't

The standings get recalculated every night, and the Sun's still won't be fun to read on Tuesday morning. But nobody leaves a concert talking about the parking situation. On one Monday in Uncasville, a 3-15 team hosted a piece of WNBA history, and Griner got to it in 22 minutes. Dydek held that spot since 2008. Griner holds it now, and every block from here on just raises the bar.

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