“SO COLD,” LeBron James wrote while reposting Caitlin Clark’s highlights after CC demolished the Sky with her third triple-double of her career. The first points from the field for Clark came with her signature logo-three as she pulled up from almost 30 feet away to open the scoring.  But Clark was not all cold throughout the game, as it saw more drama with her rival Angel Reese.

It looked like an easy bucket from a couple of feet away for Reese but Clark came in with a rough attempt to prevent the shot. Reese was on the floor and immediately got back up to get in the face of Clark. It was deemed a personal foul at first but was later changed to a flagrant 1, to which Clark looked very surprised.

Despite this heated moment, Reese has earned a lot of praise from the Fever coach, Stephanie White. She said in the postgame press conference,“They’re a great offensive rebounding team and Angel Reese is probably the best offensive rebounder in the game. So she’s going to be tough to keep off the glass Um, but I felt like our energy our effort our attention to detail wasn’t always there, but when you play with multiple levels of effort, you can cover up for a lot of that .”

Aliyah Boston, who stepped in to de-escalate the situation during the foul, received an offsetting technical foul alongside Angel Reese. Boston appeared surprised upon learning about the technical, reportedly saying, “I got the tech? Oh, no!” This reaction, shared near the Fever’s locker room, underscores the intensity of the moment and the mutual respect among players, even amidst heated competition.

Even though it looked like total domination from the Fever, Reese was on her game, getting her first double-double of the season with 12 points and 17 rebounds for the Sky. Last season she was a force on the defense for Sky, in which she had a streak of 15 consecutive double-doubles, during which she averaged 15.3 points and 13.2 rebounds per game. No WNBA player has ever posted such a long double-double streak — not just any WNBA rookie, any WNBA player, period.

So White is not wrong in saying that she’s the best rebounder in the game currently. Reese has her CV to prove that. Now she is working on adding some outside shooting too, as she made 1 out of her 2 three-pointers against the Fever. She can run to the basket and now if she adds outside shooting to her skills, it will be a nightmare for defenders.

But what about help? Even after a game like that from Reese, she had almost no support. Ariel Atkins chipped in with 11 points. Only these two on the Sky scored 10+ points, while Fever had four  scoring 15 or above. It’s only the first game but the Sky need some spark soon from a player other than Reese to win some games. This performance came against an improved defense of the Indiana Fever but it’s still nowhere near being the best in the league.

The Fever’s balanced attack, featuring Aliyah Boston’s 19 points and 13 rebounds, overwhelmed the Sky. DeWanna Bonner, now with the Connecticut Sun, passed Tina Thompson for third in WNBA all-time scoring during her own game. That kind of teamwork made it tough for Chicago to keep up, but Angel Reese’s effort still stood out, earning her nods from the Fever’s locker room.

That was some high praise for someone who is just a second-year in the WNBA and it shows that the Fever respect Reese’s game despite the rivalry. Even with the tension running high between Reese and Clark, the Fever point guard has always respected Angel Reese the player.

If the rivalry blinds you from respecting the opponent, it becomes harder to win.

Where do the Chicago Sky go from here?

One game—that’s all it took for the Indiana Fever to put a pin on all the excitement from preseason and training camp for the Chicago Sky. They looked clueless against the class of the Fever, who just came at them with vigor and new ideas on almost every play. There was the Aliyah Boston-Caitlin Clark connection.

Their two-woman plays were too tricky for the Sky defense. Then there was the issue of Caitlin Clark herself, she was moving the play and controlling the play the way they wanted and scoring at will. So Sky thought, Let’s double up on Clark to limit her passing and scoring but it did not work. There was this one play in the third quarter with 7 minutes left on the clock. Reese was guarding Natasha Howard but she came in to double on Clark. Howard spotted that and made a run in behind the space, Clark found her with pinpoint precision for an easy layup.

The defense just went into disarray with all these different types of high-quality plays from the Fever. The coach needs more time to drill this team with his specific plan. It was looking way too half-hearted in their opening game. But that’s all it was, the opening game. They have a long way to go and Fever is one of the best teams in the league right now and to face them right out the gate was a little tough.

One thing that they can take from this game is their strong start. It was neck and neck till the last two minutes of the first quarter when the Fever pulled away. The new veterans need some time to blend in, as do the rookies. Another positive note will be their outside shooting. they had virtually no shooter from beyond the arc last season but Ariel Atkins has partially solved those woes as they shot 29.1%  from outside.

It is not a great 3pt% for a team, but at least they are going for those outside shots, which they were almost completely abstaining from last season. They stood last among the 12 teams with 14.9 3-pointers attempted per game. They shot 27 just yesterday and they have enough quality so those shots would eventually go in as the season progresses. The next game will be an even more stern test for the Sky, as they will face the New York Liberty, who obliterated the Las Vegas Aces in the first game. They are on a high as opposed to Chicago, who are coming from a confidence-shattering loss.