July 15, 2025
Locked On Women’s Basketball: Angel Reese’s game contains multitudes for Chicago Sky
Hope Perry: '[Reese] is playing some of the best basketball that we're seeing this season, and certainly for the Sky that's made a big difference'
On today’s episode of Locked On Women’s Basketball, host Howard Megdal and The Next’s Chicago Sky beat reporter Hope Perry talk all things Angel Reese and the Chicago Sky overall. First, Perry explained how Reese’s rebounding has skyrocketed as the season progresses:
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“Angel has been having an absolutely incredible rebounding season, and anyone who’s been following her game isn’t surprised by this, right?” Perry said. “This has been her skill. And this season, there has been more backlash online, hate, people saying that the reason she has so many rebounds is because she’s only grabbing her own misses. And [her] saying that they’re ‘me bounds,’ she turned this on [its] head, created a whole line of merch. And there’s actually been a number of folks who have crunched the numbers, and even if you take away all of the rebounds that Angel has gotten from her own misses, she’s still leading the league in rebounds by far. So yeah, I think she probably just grabbed another rebound right now. She seems to be able to do it in her sleep at this point, but it’s incredibly impressive to watch every night.”
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Then, they touched on how the Sky have adjusted their approach and on-court identity to complement Reese’s (and others’) strengths:
“[Sky head coach Tyler Marsh] talks pretty frequently about how the team is unselfish, and they like to move the ball around,” Perry explained. “And I think that’s really evident when you see how often they’re getting the ball to Reese on the inside. I was at the game against the Dallas Wings last week, and there was a sequence in the fourth quarter when Reese’s contact came out after someone made contact with her face, she dropped the contact in Tyler Marsh’s hand, and then made a shot with only one contact in, took a foul, went down, put the contact back in, and then took free throws … So I think that she has really shown she’s putting in so much work, and there’s so much grit, and she loves playing, and it’s just so evident from watching her game. So yes, I think it’s clear [Reese] is playing some of the best basketball that we’re seeing this season, and certainly for the Sky that’s made a big difference.”
Megdal continued: “If you are talking about [Reese] as a pure rebounder when she’s having this offensive emergence as a shooter, you’re missing the point. And similarly, Angel Reese last year had one game with more than three assists in her entire season, and this year, she has already had six with at least five assists in the last three weeks. She’s had four at six or more, including she had a game with 11 assists. So again, you know, people put an Alyssa Thomas comp on her at times, and I think that’s brutally unfair, because Alyssa Thomas is a very specific, very singular player. I also think there are ways in which I think Angel Reese has a chance to be a better player than Alyssa Thomas in terms of her overall range and in terms of her overall ability to affect the game from the mid-range in a way that AT just simply doesn’t have the ability to do. Now, AT does some things from a passing perspective that I don’t think it’ll ever be fair to ask Angel to do a list. Thomas, right now, the current league leader in assists. My point is, there’s a different shape to their game[s], and even within that context, being a four or five, who is this able to find her teammates this early, kind of blows my mind.”
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