Chicago Sky enjoy growth with a brutal reminder as Aces, A'ja Wilson win at buzzer

With just over a second left, A'ja Wilson snapped the Chicago Sky's heart in two.

Wilson, arguably the league's MVP, took an entry pass, sank a layup as time expired as Las Vegas won 77-75 and erased the final two minutes of a game where the Sky showed how far they've come since May.

A team lacking in late-game execution that erased a double-digit deficit didn't have time to revel in it, not without the win. Sky guard Michaela Onyenwere spoke on the duality of the moment.

"It sucks," Onyenwere said. "We don't have time to dwell."

There is no time to dwell on heartbreak. Not when the Sky are in the middle of a playoff push with the final month of the regular season awaiting in a week.

Had the Sky pulled off the win, there would've been so much growth to revel in.

The first was slashing the Aces' 13-point lead in the fourth quarter with defensive stops, an offense led by Lindsay Allen and Chennedy Carter's 3-point shooting.

This was a young team getting stops in crunch time against a team looking for its third-straight title. It's all for naught in the team's eyes. They didn't get the win.

Wilson's buzzer-beater will be the last word on the highlight reels, not Carter's game-tying three sinking through the nylon with 1.1 seconds left.

"It hurts me," Carter said. "We're young," 

It was a cathartic moment for Carter, a player who remade her career in Chicago and continues to prove she can be a player the team counts on when the chips are down, the clock is running out and the team needs a bucket.

Carter said she told the coaches before the shot she was feeling it. When she got the ball in her hands, there wasn't any off-ball movement. If the Sky were going to tie the game, it was going to be by her hand. Carter tied the game.

Again, it was all for naught.

"It shows our growth," Carter said. "Things like this will get us ready for the future."

That doesn't dampen the pain. Head coach Teresa Weatherspoon walked into the press conference after the game and let out a yell.

"It hurts," Weatherspoon said. "That's what that feels like."

This doesn't take away from the Aces, a team with multiple Olympians seeking more championships and potentially the right to claim the most successful dynasty in league history.

Aces point guard Chelesa Gray, inbounding the ball for the final shot, waited for Kelsey Plum to get Angel Reese to switch off Wilson and tossed a pass over Kamilla Cardoso that Wilson caught perfectly. She laid in the winner.

As well as the Sky played in the final minutes, there are only a handful of players on the planet that could execute that final play. The right collection of those players were in Wintrust Arena Sunday.

"It was a perfect pass," Carter said. "It kind of just happens with one second."

It's the second game in a row the Sky have lost by a bucket. That sting hurts, but the team needs to regroup winnable games at home against Washington and Indiana on the docket this week.

A great way to regroup is to understand how the Sky took the defending champs to the edge. One reason why was because of how Reese and Cardoso's defense forced stops in the waning minutes. Another reason was the team making shots when they needed to.

Starting with the defense, though, is big. Cardoso played a great defensive game on Wilson, finishing with 12 rebounds and five blocks.

Reese, as she does on a regular basis, did something unique. She became the first WNBA player to record three-straight 20-rebound games. Reese has 62 total rebounds in the last three games.

"It's always a luxury when you shoot it and you know someone's going to get their rebound," Carter said. "They have so much potential to get better."

However, the biggest reason behind the comeback is the belief Weatherspoon instilled in the team.

"We never thought we were out of it," Weatherspoon said. "We want to get better."

This has been the case plenty of times during a season where the Sky have been overachievers.

Weatherspoon, Carter, Reese, Cardoso and others have had their moments where they've stepped up to keep the Sky in striking distance. It doesn't always end with a win, and the team wants no part of any moral victories, but they see the process working.

With the playoffs in mind, it's important the team understands how temporary Sunday's heartbreak can be.

That will be naught if the team can finagle a playoff berth in Weatherspoon's first season with a young team on a rebuild.

"We don't own a towel to throw in," Weatherspoon said. "I think it showed big time today against a good basketball team, a championship basketball team."