Sky, playing without leading scorer Chennedy Carter, lose to Atlanta Dream
COLLEGE PARK, Ga. (AP) — Jordin Canada scored 18 points, Tina Charles finished with 16 points and 14 rebounds to tie the WNBA record with the 193rd double-double of her career and the Atlanta Dream beat the Chicago Sky 86-70 on Tuesday night to move into the eighth playoff spot with one game left.
Atlanta (14-25) broke a three-way tie with Chicago (13-26) and Washington. The Mystics (13-26) lost to New York 87-71 on Tuesday.
Rachel Banham made six 3-pointers to lead Chicago with 22 points.
Charles' 13-footer gave Atlanta a 60-48 lead with just over two minutes to go in the third quarter and the Dream led 60-52 going into the fourth. Charles and Canada combined to score Atlanta's first 14 points of the final period and keep the Dream ahead by double digits.
With her double-double, Charles matched Sylvia Fowles for the league record. Charles also passed 4,000 rebounds for her career and is two shy of matching Fowles' league record of 4,016.
Charles is the only WNBA player with 7,000 points and 4,000 rebounds in her career.
Allisha Gray and Rhyne Howard had 15 points each for Atlanta.
Lindsay Allen scored 16 and Isabelle Harrison had 13 points and 11 rebounds for Chicago.
Atlanta led 45-27 with 90 seconds left in the second quarter, its biggest lead of the first half.
Chicago played without leading scorer Chennedy Carter (17.5 ppg), who was held out with a foot injury. The Sky have now lost four of five since Angel Reese's season-ending wrist injury. The rookie was averaging 13.6 points and a league-best 13.1 rebounds per game.
In Thursday's regular-season finales, it will be Atlanta at New York, Chicago at Connecticut and Indiana at Washington.