Chicago Sky Fall to Las Vegas Aces Again Without Angel Reese

The Chicago Sky’s dreadful season is almost over. After losing the first two games against the Las Vegas Aces this season, Sky head coach Tyler Marsh would have been happy to see his team win against his former team.

From 2022-2024, Marsh was an assistant coach for the Aces, including their WNBA championship seasons in 2022 and 2023. With playoff success and player development on his resume, Chicago hired him to replace the fired Teresa Weatherspoon. Judging by another double-digit defeat, that decision has not panned out.

Yet another terrible first quarter squandered any hopes for the Sky’s 11th win on the season on Tuesday night. Chicago was outscored, again, in the game’s opening period.

The Aces took a 28-14 lead over the Sky going into the second quarter. Chicago could only come up with 24 second-half points. Las Vegas scored at least 23 points in three of four quarters.

Chicago had very little going for them on offense. Starting center Kamilla Cardoso and Michaela Onyenwere each had 13 points. Outside of those two, the six players that took the court for the Sky combined for just 35 more points.

With both Angel Reese and Ariel Atkins out again, Chicago struggled to score. The Sky continued to fail with their deep ball. No player made more than one shot from behind the arc as the team went 4-for-22 from three (18.2%).

Even on the defensive end, Chicago had no answers. The Aces had six players score in double-figures, including four starters. Jackie Young had a pair of game highs for Las Vegas with 15 points and seven assists.

On Tuesday, Chicago was nearly perfect from the free-throw line as a team. With just one miss out of 20 shots, the Sky made 19 free throws (95%) in the loss to the Aces. Their 19 points from the charity stripe accounted for 30.65% of their scoring.

Secondly, the Sky contained the Aces’ leading scorer A’ja Wilson. Chicago held Las Vegas’s starting center to just 11 points (four were from free throws). She averages 23 points and nearly ten rebounds a game.

It is the second time this season that the Sky held one of the league’s best scorers to below 20 points. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to win any of the three games against Las Vegas this season as Marsh is now 0-3 against his former team.

Make sure you bookmark the Chicago Sky on SI for the latest news, exclusive interviews, film breakdowns, and so much more!