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If there was ever an interesting matchup, it would be 6-foot-7 Chicago Sky rookie Kamilla Cardoso taking on 6-foot-9 Phoenix Mercury great Brittney Griner. Both are a strong presence in the paint, as Griner herself has noticed. One represents the present and the other represents the future. The time came for them to meet for the first time on Thursday in Chicago.

After a month-long hiatus due to the Olympic Games, the Sky were back in action as they took on the Mercury. It was clear from the start they needed to get back into a routine. Plus, they were without starting guard Chennedy Carter, who was out with a non-COVID illness. It was also the first game without Marina Mabrey after she was traded to the Connecticut Sun

The first quarter set the tone as the Mercury outscored the Sky 30-12. It turned out to be all the cushion Phoenix needed as their lead remained in double figures as Chicago struggled to stay competitive. The end result was a 85-65 loss.

Cardoso finished with 10 points and five rebounds. She shot 62.5 percent from the field, the highest field goal percentage of anyone on the Sky. Griner finished with 23 points and nine rebounds while shooting 83 percent from the field. Despite Griner’s dominating performance, Cardoso was able to hold it together as best she could in terms of agility, strength and being constant on defense. Afterwards, she earned Griner’s respect.

Griner said:

I always like going up against people my size. I looked forward to it tonight, and I was happy with it. I don’t ever go into a game like, ‘Let me try to stretch it out more on this one.’ I just kind of read how they playing me. What the matchup is, if they send help and that just kind of dictates what I want to do that night. But, I was happy with how it went.

Head coach Teresa Weatherspoon acknowledged Griner as a standard bearer for post players in the league and praised Cardoso for her performance, expressing confidence in her ability to learn from players like Griner. Weatherspoon emphasized:

I think you all know who BG is. BG is one of the best post players doing it. She’s been around. You name the defense, she’s seen it, she’s played against it. So she’s very patient in what she does offensively. I think Kamilla did a heck of a job of trying to keep her off of where she operates best. BG just knows how to get shots off, creates space, something that Kamilla learns from and she knows what she needs to do down the stretch when we meet them again. That’s the most important thing, you learn. You learn how great these players are. You take some things that they do, but then you learn how to defend it.

There were some other notable performances. Angel Reese notched her 18th double-double on the year and broke Sylvia Fowles’ single-season franchise rebounding record. Dana Evans’ sharp shooting resulted in 14 points. Rachel Banham, in her first Sky game since coming from the Sun, went 3-for-10 from the field. In her return to Chicago, Kahleah Copper led all scorers with 29 points.

The Chicago Sky (10-15) will hit the road to take on the Los Angeles Sparks (6-19) on Saturday, Aug. 17 at 5 p.m. ET.