EmailPrintOpen Extended ReactionsCHICAGO -- Kamilla Cardoso had already tied her career high for points in a half when she sat down in the locker room and pulled out her phone at halftime. There was a message already waiting from Dawn Staley, her former coach at South Carolina.That's when the Chicago Sky center knew it was going to be one of those nights.Cardoso set a WNBA record for the most field goals without a miss as she went 13 for 13 while scoring 30 points and grabbing eight rebounds. That was the second 30-point game in league history by someone who shot 100%, joining Nneka Ogwumike (12 for 12) in 2016.The Sky rolled to a 124-94 victory over the Portland Fire as it scored the second-most points by a team in regulation in league history."She texts me all the time," Cardoso said of Staley. "Just to make me feel confident and to let me know that she's always on my corner."Confidence can sometimes be an issue for the 2024 No. 3 overall pick, but it certainly wasn't Friday. Portland had no answer as Chicago put up a league-record 38 assists and shot 66.2% from the field. Sydney Taylor finished with 29 points for her third 25-point game of the season, matching Olivia Miles for the most among rookies. The Sky now have consecutive 100-point games for third time in franchise history."We talked a lot about selflessness the last couple days in terms of our play," Marsh said. "I don't think we have selfish players in that locker room I think that sometimes the ball can just stick, and people try to make things happen on their own, and we're just not built that way as a team."This is what we hoped it would look like from an offensive standpoint."The good feelings in the building started well before the Sky began to put up historic numbers. The decibels started to climb inside Wintrust Area as Courtney Vandersloot stood up and made her way to the scoring table. Fans were already on their feet when the buzzer sounded to let the five-time all-star check into the game midway through the first quarter as she clapped powder onto her hands.The Sky all-time leader in points had finally returned from a torn ACL that limited her to just seven games in 2026.With 15 years in the league and 436 regular-season games played, does a two-time champion and five-time all-WNBA selection get nervous to get back on the court?"It feels like first day of school vibes," Vandersloot told ESPN. "Once I was out there, I felt like, OK, this feels familiar."Even if I wasn't out for a year, I would still be nervous. It's just who I am."There was nothing to be nervous about despite Vandersloot (10 points, seven assists) having not played a game since June 7 last season when she went down with the torn ligament just seven games into the season. The 5-foot-8 point guard had returned to the franchise that drafted her No. 3 overall in 2011 after two seasons in New York, so the injury was a massive disappointment.She was a starter on the Sky's first championship team in 2021and the league's No. 2 all-time assists leader went and won a second title with the New York Liberty in 2024 before returning to her roots last season. That, however, didn't last long before she was lost to injury.The organization went through another makeover before the 2026 season, but both parties decided to run it back one more time."She was back tonight like she had never left," Marsh said. "You can tell she was back in kind of her happy place. And it took all of about 15 seconds before she was yelling at one of her teammates to get to where they were supposed to be."Vandersloot added, "The anticipation was the hardest part."The 37-year-old said the knee feels fine and she fully trusts it, but there's some rust to knock off. There were flashes of the player fans have grown to love - splitting a pair of defenders for a finger roll layup, a ball-fake to open the lane for a driving floater and finding a cutting Cardoso with a cross-court pass out of a double team. There were also a few sloppy turnovers that seemed to be a timing/comfort issue.Marsh had her on a minutes restriction and he now has the challenge of working with three point guards in Vandersloot, Skylar Diggins and Natasha Cloud. Vandersloot came off the bench and Marsh said he'd play Diggins off-ball more with the new configuration. There was one stretch where all three guards were on the floor together."For the most part, the style stays pretty similar," Marsh said. "She's got a good command of what we want to do and has been slowly integrating herself throughout practices and shoot arounds and things of that nature."It's just a matter of finding the rotations and the lineups that make sense and kind of are more cohesive together with her back in the lineup."Every rotation seemed to work for the Sky on Friday as the team set offensive records all over the place.Bridget Carleton led the Fire with 20 points as the team became the second in WNBA history to allow 100-plus points in three straight road games, joining the 2018 Las Vegas Aces.
