SKY’S POV
Coach called an extra meeting before Monday’s practice, which meant the standings had officially started mattering in the way they only mattered this time of year. Eight games left. Three teams within four points of us for the last playoff spot. Every shift from here counted twice.
Reyes put it plainly on the whiteboard, numbers and matchups laid out like a math problem none of us wanted to solve under this much scrutiny. “No easy nights left,” he said. “Every game’s a playoff game now. Play like it.”
I sat there taking it in, and for the first time in weeks I noticed something happening in my chest that I recognized before it became anything — a tightness starting to build low in my ribs, testing the edges the way it always did before it decided whether to take over completel
