With a difficult five-game road trip under way, the Las Vegas Aces started it off in as brutal a fashion as possible.
On Saturday, the Aces coughed up a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter to drop a trap game in heartbreaking fashion to the Chicago Sky 84-83.
Ending fell flat
By the end of the third quarter, the Aces seemed to finally be getting a grip on the game with a ten-point lead heading into the final ten minutes.
However, the team seemed to hit the cruise control button too early, and the Sky were keen on taking advantage. Chicago would explode for 29 points in the fourth quarter, finished off by Syndey Taylor’s game-winning three-pointer in the last second. Meanwhile, the Aces went cold with only 18 points and left only with questions on what went wrong.
“You hold the team to 16, 21, 18 and then give up 29 in the fourth quarter and get, defensively, completely away from what we did all game or don’t do it at a high enough level,” said Aces head coach Becky Hammon in her postgame presser. “This loss was completely avoidable.”
Playing with fire
Part of the reason why the Aces could not get separation and ultimately opened the door for the Sky’s comeback was their inability to take care of the basketball.
The Aces made an uncharacteristic amount of mistakes, leading to 16 turnovers, their highest mark in that category since May. Jackie Young was the guiltiest party with a season-high six turnovers, while Chelsea Gray would get dinged for three. A’ja Wilson, NaLyssa Smith and Jewell Loyd would each be charged with two giveaways each, and those mistakes eventually snowballed into a gut-wrenching loss.
“I thought we got into some crowds and maybe hung on to the ball a little bit,” said Hammon about the lack of ball security. “You just got to keep playing and make the easy play. I thought we didn’t make easy passes.”
Heavy lifting
On the other half of the equation, the Aces left too many of the offensive responsibilities lie with too few players.
Wilson and Young would both secure double-doubles, with Wilson also exploding for a game-high 36 points. However, the offensive execution was full of holes that ultimately never got fixed. The bench only mustered five points, and the Aces would go a combined 5-for-22 from three-point range that resulted in too many empty possessions.
“They went 2-for-12,” mentioned Hammon about the bench’s struggles for offensive production. “My thing is we are taking quality looks. They didn’t go in today, but they’re going to get their opportunities. It’s just about knocking down shots and we didn’t today.”