{"id":56438,"date":"2025-08-03T23:36:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T23:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/56438\/"},"modified":"2025-08-03T23:36:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T23:36:10","slug":"kamilla-cardoso-answers-the-call-on-the-boards-still-chasing-consistency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/56438\/","title":{"rendered":"Kamilla Cardoso answers the call on the boards, still chasing consistency"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sky<\/a> center Kamilla Cardoso\u2019s sophomore season has been a mixed bag: flashes of dominance, stretches where her presence has faded. But one thing trending upward lately is her rebounding.<\/p>\n

Part of that, according to head coach Tyler Marsh, is opportunity. Angel Reese \u2014 the league\u2019s leading rebounder \u2014 has missed three of the last five games with a back injury, giving Cardoso more chances on the glass. But it\u2019s also been her mindset.<\/p>\n

\u201c[She understands] that we need her more on the defensive glass,\u201d Marsh said. \u201cWe really gotta pull down those defensive rebounds and give ourselves a chance to run in transition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the last five games, Cardoso is averaging 11 rebounds \u2014 third in the WNBA behind Alyssa Thomas and Aliyah Boston. That production could help build her confidence.<\/p>\n

Marsh said last week that Cardoso hasn\u2019t been happy with how she\u2019s played overall. He continues to push her to be more aggressive, and it might be starting to show. Her field goal attempts are up to 10.8 per game over that same stretch, her highest mark this season and more in line with the usage of other impact centers around the league.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s posted four double-doubles in her last five games, while defenses have shifted more attention her way in Reese\u2019s absence.<\/p>\n

Opposing teams have increasingly tried to deny Cardoso easy post entries and force her to catch higher up the floor, out of her comfort zone, where she\u2019s less likely to make a quick move. As Mercury head coach Nate Tibbetts put it: \u201cWhen she catches it at the front of the rim, you\u2019re in trouble. She creates a lot of problems because of her size, so we can\u2019t allow deep catches.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a post-AmeriCup dip \u2014 which included several inefficient performances \u2014 Cardoso\u2019s shooting percentage has climbed back above 50%.<\/p>\n

AfroBasket champions<\/p>\n

Sky assistant coach Rena Wakama led the Nigerian national team to its fifth straight AfroBasket title, her third as head coach. The Nigerian team beat Mali 78-64 on Sunday in C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire. Nigeria is the first team to win five consecutive championships in the tournament\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

As a player, Wakama helped Nigeria to a bronze medal at AfroBasket in 2015, the year after she graduated college. She\u2019s in her first season as a WNBA assistant on Marsh\u2019s staff.<\/p>\n

The Sky will celebrate Nigerian Night on Aug. 19 against the Storm. Sky players Elizabeth Williams and Michaela Onyenwere are both Nigerian-American.<\/p>\n

Injury report<\/p>\n

Reese (back) and Ariel Atkins (calf) were inactive against the Mercury and remain day-to-day, leaving the Sky without their two top scorers and leaders in minutes played.<\/p>\n

The Sky aren\u2019t the only team feeling the strain. According to injury tracker data<\/a> compiled by physical therapist and assistant professor Lucas Seehafer, there have been 174 injuries across the league this season, resulting in 663 missed games. Those figures are on pace to significantly exceed totals from the past two years, when Seehafer began collecting the data.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sky center Kamilla Cardoso\u2019s sophomore season has been a mixed bag: flashes of dominance, stretches where her presence…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-56438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}