The Dallas Wings entered Saturday's home game against the Chicago Sky with three players on the status report, and Odyssey Sims was ruled out for a sixth straight game because of a left ankle injury. Alanna Smith and Alysha Clark were listed as questionable before the 7 p.m. CT tip at College Park Center.
The game was set to air nationally on CBS, which gave the pregame report added weight for Dallas after a week that already included a 91-80 loss at the Golden State Valkyries. The Wings were 9-6 entering the night, and they had beaten Chicago 99-89 on May 20 in a result that stood out because it was Dallas's first regular-season win over the Sky since 2024 and its first road win at Wintrust Arena since 2022.
Smith's status carried a separate layer of uncertainty. The reigning WNBA co-Defensive Player of the Year signed a three-year deal with Dallas in the offseason and had played through recovery from a nasal fracture suffered against the Las Vegas Aces in preseason. She came into the night averaging 3.6 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.4 assists through 14 games, while Clark, a 38-year-old veteran forward, was listed with a left leg issue after giving Dallas another experienced front-line option.
Sims' absence was more concrete. Dallas signed her before the season to add backcourt depth, and she had appeared in 10 games while averaging 6.0 points, 0.9 rebounds and 2.7 assists. Her sixth consecutive missed game narrowed Dallas's guard rotation even before tip-off, leaving the Wings to manage the evening without one of the players they had counted on to steady the offense.
That made the minutes to watch the ones that had not yet been decided. The Wings had leaned on Jessica Shepard and Awak Kuier in the frontcourt lately, and the previous meeting with Chicago had turned partly on Li Yueru's work off the bench against Kamilla Cardoso. Whether Smith and Clark would be available was still unanswered when the clock moved toward 7 p.m. CT, and Dallas had to prepare for a nationally televised game with more uncertainty than usual.
