WNBA playoffs 2022 - Will Chicago Sky or Connecticut Sun win semis plagued by inconsistency?

The Chicago Sky host the Connecticut Sun in one winner-take-all game left in the 2022 WNBA playoffs, and one question remains: Will the real best team in this semifinal series please stand up?

The two teams meet Thursday (8 p.m. ET, ESPN2) in a decisive Game 5 of a series many didn't expect to go this far. Chicago beat Connecticut 3-1 in the semifinals last season on the way to the WNBA title and then won all four regular-season matchups between the teams this year. If the Sun couldn't defeat the Sky once all season, could they really do it three times in the postseason? We're about to find out.

Starting in 2016, the league went away from the WNBA Finals pitting the Eastern and Western conference playoff winners and changed to a format in which the top eight teams are seeded regardless of conference. But this year, the semifinals ended up as de facto Eastern and Western matchups.

The Las Vegas Aces defeated the Seattle Storm 3-1 on Tuesday and await the Sky-Sun winner as the Finals opens in Vegas on Sunday (3 p.m. ET, ABC). That semifinal had ups and downs for both teams during the course of the series, but it all came down to the wire in exciting fashion. As good as the No. 4 seed Storm were, the No. 1 seed Aces were just a little better.

But the Sky and Sun both have played subpar games in their series. The worst for the Sky came Tuesday in Game 4, when they scored 80 points but lost by 24. After the Sun had struggled enormously in the paint in their Game 3 loss Sunday, they didn't just turn things around, they set a WNBA playoff record for points in the paint (66), and that has to concern Chicago.

«I'm sure it's not how we wanted to play,» Chicago coach James Wade said. «But we have to find ways to have that high