Cambage, Wings try to soar past Sky (Jul 19, 2018)
Center Liz Cambage and the red-hot Dallas Wings will go for their eighth win in the past nine games when they visit the Chicago Sky on Friday night at Wintrust Arena.
Dallas (14-9) is coming off a 90-81 win over the Washington Mystics in a nationally televised game Thursday night. The victory put the Wings a season-high five games above .500 as they seek their first winning record in three seasons since the franchise moved from Tulsa.
Cambage has put the team on her back during its recent hot streak. She set a WNBA single-game scoring record by scoring 53 points with 10 rebounds and five blocks on Tuesday in a win over the New York Liberty. Two nights later, she led Dallas with 35 points on 12-for-23 shooting to go along with 17 rebounds and four assists.
Cambage's 88 points marks the most in a two-game span in WNBA history. The previous record holder was Minnesota Lynx forward Maya Moore, who once scored 80 points in back-to-back contests.
Cambage is also the first player since Moore in 2014 to record back-to-back games with at least 30 points and 10 rebounds.
Players across the WNBA have reached out to Cambage during her historic run.
"I've already had a lot of the girls reach out, (like) Candace Parker," Cambage said. "It means a lot to see other players feeling it and wishing me well after a game like that."
It will be up to Chicago (7-16) to try to put a stop to the Wings' wild success. The Sky enter the game as underdogs after losing each of their past four contests, with each of those losses coming by double digits.
Allie Quigley leads the Sky with 16.1 points per game. Rookie Diamond DeShields also has provided a bright spot to an otherwise dreary season for Chicago by averaging 13.4 points and 4.9 rebounds.
Quigley acknowledged that opposing defenses have paid extra attention to stopping her as of late.
"I just have to read the defense and if they're taking something away, sometimes I just have to be OK with cutting away and spacing the floor," Quigley said to the Chicago Daily Herald. "It's just about reading the defense and not overthinking it. I am (getting more defensive attention). But you just have to adjust to it."
Courtney Vandersloot (10.9 points per game) and Cheyenne Parker (9.6 points) are next on the Sky scoring list.
The Wings have plenty of firepower in addition to Cambage. Four other players scored in double digits in Thursday's win over Washington, including the backcourt tandem of Azura Stevens (11 points) and Skylar Diggins-Smith (10). Meanwhile, forwards Kayla Thornton (15) and Glory Johnson (13) also enjoyed strong performances.
Chicago is 5-7 at home. Dallas is 5-6 on the road.
