TORONTO \u2014 Nobody\u2019s happy about how the Sky (4-7) are playing right now.<\/p>\n
Especially not point guard Skylar Diggins.<\/p>\n
Diggins hadn\u2019t said much about the team\u2019s recent stretch \u2014 they\u2019ve lost five of their last six \u2014 but she offered a glimpse into how she\u2019s feeling after the Sky fizzled out Sunday against the Tempo, losing 85-68.<\/p>\n
Asked what needs to change about the team\u2019s slow starts, she didn\u2019t hold back.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018More maturity and more leadership on and off the floor, [from] the players on the floor [and] the staff, as well,\u2019\u2019 Diggins said. \u2018\u2018More connectivity. If it was just versus one team, I\u2019d understand that. Now it\u2019s . . . a trend of ours. It\u2019s disappointing; it really is. It\u2019s frustrating.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018Games aren\u2019t going to slow down. The teams [are] going to keep getting better and better around us. So we\u2019ve got to figure out how we\u2019re going to turn this corner. This has been an extremely frustrating experience.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
Diggins is right that it isn\u2019t going to get easier. The Sky\u2019s next four games are against the Dream, Fever, Liberty and Wings.<\/p>\n
So it was concerning that two more deflating trends continued Sunday: a stagnant half-court offense and an inability to keep teams off the boards. The Sky shot poorly \u2014 35.4% from the field, 24% from three-point range \u2014 and once again lost the rebounding battle.<\/p>\n
Diggins had pointed responses to both.<\/p>\n
Asked about the half-court offense, she pointed to coach Tyler Marsh.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018That\u2019s a Tyler question,\u2019\u2019 she said.<\/p>\n
Asked about the rebounding, she was even more harsh.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018Effort all around needs to go up, and we have to get out of that loser mentality that we have,\u2019\u2019 Diggins said. \u2018\u2018 \u2018Oh, here it goes again, here it comes again.\u2019 We\u2019re pros. We have to all step up when you\u2019re pros, starting with myself.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
Something clearly isn\u2019t clicking for Diggins and the Sky.<\/p>\n
After the previous game, a victory against the Sun, Diggins had voiced disappointment in her own play this season, saying she expected herself to \u2018\u2018play [expletive] better.\u2019\u2019 She did, scoring 24 points.<\/p>\n
But she struggled against the Tempo, scoring seven points on 2-for-8 shooting.<\/p>\n
Asked about Diggins\u2019 frustration and the first-quarter offensive struggles, Marsh didn\u2019t have an immediate answer. But he said it was on him.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018I\u2019m not sure,\u2019\u2019 he said. \u2018\u2018I think it\u2019s something we\u2019ve got to continue to look at as a staff. I think the accountability starts there. Starts [with] me and ends with me, honestly. I understand the frustration. There\u2019s frustration across the board. Nobody\u2019s happy with where we\u2019re at, record-wise or how we\u2019re playing, so I take the hit on that.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018How we are playing is on me. This is my second year here, and we haven\u2019t gotten the results that we are looking for. That\u2019s what comes with being in this position. I take that. I accept that. I definitely have to get better. Our staff has to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n
So what\u2019s the way forward? And are Marsh and Diggins aligned on it?<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018I think we\u2019re on the same page in terms of where we\u2019re at as a team and where we\u2019re capable of getting as a team,\u2019\u2019 Marsh said. \u2018\u2018I don\u2019t think she would be in a Sky jersey if we weren\u2019t on that same page.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018Obviously, after a game like this and after how the last couple of weeks have gone, frustrations are at a high. We\u2019ve got to get together. We\u2019ve got to figure it out.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 Nobody\u2019s happy about how the Sky (4-7) are playing right now. Especially not point guard Skylar…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":690730,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-690729","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\/690729","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=690729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/690730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=690729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=690729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=690729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}