CHICAGO — The Chicago Sky are hosting the New York Liberty in their WNBA season home opener Thursday at Wintrust Arena.
The game begins at 7 p.m.
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The New York Liberty takes on the Chicago Sky after Breanna Stewart scored 25 points in the Liberty’s 92-78 victory against the Las Vegas Aces.
Chicago ended with a 13-27 record overall and 5-15 in Eastern Conference matchups last season. The Sky averaged 77.4 points per game while allowing their opponents to score 82.5.
New York completed the season with a 32-8 overall record and went 16-4 in Eastern Conference play. The Liberty averaged 22.8 assists per game from 30.8 made field goals last season.
Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark help WNBA to stellar ratings in opening weekend
It was a busy opening weekend for the WNBA with record breaking performances and ratings as the league’s stars shined.
The matchup featuring Caitlin Clark’s Indiana Fever against Angel Reese’s Chicago Sky attracted an average of 2.7 million viewers, marking it as the most watched WNBA game on ESPN platforms. Clark recorded a triple-double, while Reese contributed 12 points and 17 rebounds in Chicago’s blowout loss.
The pair also had a moment on the court when Clark had a hard foul on Reese while she was going for a layup that ended up being a flagrant 1 when it was upgraded by the officials. Both players after the game said that it was just a basketball play.
A day after the game, the league said it was looking into racial comments made towards Reese by fans. A person familiar with the situation confirmed the details to The Associated Press on Sunday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the league had not publicly identified the subject of the taunts or who made the allegations.
READ MORE | WNBA investigating racial slurs by fans made at Angel Reese during Indiana game
Indiana said it would do what it could to help the league.
“I told the team, obviously, we’re going to cooperate fully with the investigation,” Fever coach Stephanie White said Monday. “But there’s no place for that in our league, whether it’s at home, whether it’s on the road. It doesn’t matter. We want to encourage our players, our staff to bring recognition to it in real time if it’s heard, if it’s seen or anything of that nature.”
The two teams will meet again on June 7 in Chicago.
It wasn’t just the Chicago-Indiana game that drew strong numbers. The opener Saturday between Las Vegas and New York had an average of 1.3 million viewers. Reigning MVP A’ja Wilson had a stellar performance in the loss. Last season’s runner-up for MVP also had a strong opening weekend as Napheesa Collier led Minnesota to two victories.
While Indiana, Chicago, Las Vegas, New York and Minnesota were expected to be in the WNBA spotlight this season, not much was expected of Washington with a new coach, new general manager and a whole host of new players, led by rookies Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen.
The Mystics won their first two games and now head out for a three-game west coast trip in Golden State, Las Vegas and Phoenix.
ABC7 Chicago’s Dionne Miller contributed to this report.
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