Canadians Nurse, Carleton face off as Sky battle Lynx on TSN
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Hamilton’s Kia Nurse and the Chicago Sky look for a third straight win tonight as they host Chatham, Ont.’s Bridget Carleton and the Minnesota Lynx on TSN.
Watch Lynx vs. Sky LIVE at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on TSN4/5 and streaming on TSN.ca and the TSN App.
For the Sky this season, it’s been a struggle stringing together consecutive wins. They’ve done it just twice this season, including back in May when they beat the Dallas Wings back-to-back and now this current run where they beat Dallas against last Wednesday and Minnesota on Saturday. If they beat Minnesota, it will be their first three-game winning streak of the season.
In Saturday’s 87-81 win over the Lynx, Ariel Atkins had 27 points for Chicago as Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso both pulled down double-doubles.
Reese has been a nightmare for the opposition in the paint this season. She leads all players in the WNBA in rebounds this season at 12.8, well ahead of second place A’ja Wilson (9.1). Her 13.6 points per game is second on the Sky and identical to her points per game average from last season.
The 23-year-old has averaged a double-double the past eight games with the Sky going 4-4 in that span.
After starting her career in New York, Nurse has bounced around the WNBA and is on her fifth team in the past five seasons. So far this season in Chicago, she’s been a valued role player, averaging 21.4 minutes per game with seven points and 2.1 rebounds.
Her best performance of the season was on June 27 against Golden State, when she put up 17 points with four rebounds and three assists and went 5-for-11 from three.
The Lynx opened the season with a nine-game winning streak and their loss to Chicago on Saturday was just their fourth of the 2025 campaign.
Napheesa Collier has established herself as a front-runner for this year’s MVP trophy as she has Minnesota atop the WNBA standings at 18-4. She is leading the league with 23.6 points per game, is fifth in rebounds at 7.9 while averaging 33.6 minutes a night.
Carleton is in her seventh season with Minnesota and is coming off a career season in 2024, where she averaged 9.6 points and 3.8 rebounds.
While her points per game has slipped to 6.5 so far this season, it’s her three-point percentage (32.5 per cent) that has dropped back closer to her career average (38.7) after seeing it at 44.4 per cent in 2024.
After starting her career as a role player coming off the bench, Carleton has graduated into a starter under Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve. She has started all 22 games for Minnesota this season while averaging 29.4 minutes, the second-most of her career.