The Chicago Sky are in a slide, but compared to the Washington Mystics they’re in decent shape.

The teams meet Friday night in Washington as they try to propel their seasons in the right direction.

The Mystics (1-12) won Tuesday night 87-68 at Atlanta, ending a horrid opening stretch that came one defeat shy of the longest losing skid in franchise history. Brittney Sykes racked up 18 points in 14 minutes in her first action since May 17.

“The position we’re in, we feel we’re getting a lot better and I hope this just adds to the wave,” Mystics coach Eric Thibault said. “She brings some things that we’ve missed.”

The team’s breakthrough might have been in the works for several games.

“I’m glad we got to celebrate at least one night,” Thibault said. “We’ve been playing better basketball now for a while.”

Washington had its best 3-point performance of the season, making 17 of 31 long-range attempts.

“I think the quality of shots we’re getting is really good,” Thibault said.

The Sky (4-7) have dropped four of their last five games. Only one of those losses came by double digits, so Chicago has been in some competitive situations.

The victory in that stretch came with a 79-71 decision against the host Mystics on June 6. Chennedy Carter had 25 points off the bench for the Sky in that game, though she has scored a total of only 14 points in two games since then.

Aaliyah Edwards poured in 23 points for the Mystics in the first meeting with Chicago.

On Wednesday in an 83-75 loss to visiting Connecticut, the Sky had center Kamilla Cardoso available without minutes restrictions. She played a season-high 30 minutes, scoring 10 points on 3-for-7 shooting from the field and grabbing nine rebounds.

“I got to go out there and I got to make layups,” Cardoso said. “I feel I missed a lot of layups.”

Defense might be of bigger concern for Chicago, which has given up more than 80 points in each of its past three losses. In the last seven games, the Sky have reached the 80-point mark only two times.

–Field Level Media