A’ja Wilson went for 36 points and 12 rebounds in Chicago on Saturday, and it still wasn’t enough for the Las Vegas Aces, because Sydney Taylor never got the memo that she’s supposed to be scared of them.
Taylor, an undrafted rookie, curled off a screen, took the inbounds pass from Natasha Cloud, and buried a 24-foot catch-and-shoot three over Jackie Young with 0.9 seconds left. Final score: Sky 84, Aces 83, good for Chicago’s first win over Vegas in seven tries. The box score is right there if you don’t believe it, and the Las Vegas Sun has the full recap if you want to relive the collapse in real time.
Wilson had already won the game once. She hit a go-ahead layup with 3.2 seconds left that looked exactly like the shot a superstar hits to close out a hostile building.
For two and a half seconds, the Aces were fine.
Then Taylor got the ball back.
Her fifth 25-plus-point game of the season came at the worst possible moment for Vegas, and it’s more than every undrafted rookie in WNBA history has combined for. She admitted afterward that a 31-point game against New York before the All-Star break has “been on repeat” for her ever since, and that she was “due” for another one. Chicago’s first-year coach, Tyler Marsh, called the winning inbounds set from a play he saved from his year as a Las Vegas assistant back in 2022. He beat the team that made him a coach, with a play he learned from that same team.
https://x.com/WNBA/status/2083636086207574267
I don’t watch a ton of WNBA, but I know a statline like Wilson’s is supposed to end an argument, not start one. Thirty-six and twelve on the road should be the whole story of a Saturday night.
Instead it’s a footnote to a rookie nobody drafted deciding to play villain, and to Vegas losing a game it had won seven straight times before. Wilson didn’t have a bad night. She had one of the best games of her season, and the margin still evaporated underneath her.
Vegas should worry less about the teams chasing a title and more about everybody else. The Liberty have had the Aces’ number this season already, and now a Sky team that didn’t send a single player to All-Star Weekend just found a way in too.
Natasha Cloud said the first half of Chicago’s year was “relatively ugly and painful.” Eleven games left before the FIBA break, two already checked off. The Sky are figuring themselves out in real time, one buzzer-beater at a time.
The Aces just found out a 36-and-12 game from their franchise player isn’t automatic cover anymore. Somewhere in Chicago, Sydney Taylor is already circling the next name.
