Everybody likes fairytale endings. But you cannot get them every time, especially against a team like the New York Liberty ready to pounce on your errors. This was the harsh reality for the Chicago Sky as well. They came so close, and yet remained so far away.

The Chicago Sky lost 95-96 to the New York Liberty. They will certainly rue the missed chances early in the game. With just 10.3 seconds remaining on the clock and no timeouts left, they had to go for it. The ball ultimately fell to Sydney Taylor. She tried driving in the paint from the right. Other Chicago players tried opening up the space for her. She attempted her step-back jump shot. There were only 3 seconds left on the clock at this point. The ball hit the rim. But it just didn’t go in. It wasn’t meant to be for Taylor and co.

“Tough feeling,” Taylor said, reflecting on her missing the last shot. “But if you’re willing to take those shots, you got to be willing to live with the result. I’m not scared to take it. It was a very tough shot, but I appreciate my teammates standing around me, encouraging me.”

In all fairness, Taylor was being guarded by none other than the potential MVP of the season, Breanna Stewart. But the Sky would feel like they threw the game away. After all, they were leading the game by no less than 15 points at one point in time. And the Liberty should enjoy the feeling of stealing away the match. Too many errors by the Sky. In the end, they were just out-rebounded by the Liberty (28 for the Sky vs 34 for the Liberty)

This would be a very harsh loss for Taylor to digest. She must be appreciated for having the confidence to take that shot in the dying moments of the match. She and Gabriela Jaquez combined for a staggering 46 points. Still, they suffered their fourth straight defeat.

The Liberty did, however, make a very smart play. A play, one can say, landed them the victory. You see, just with 16 seconds left on the clock, they brought in Ionescu for Gardner. Ionescu then drove inside the paint from the left and successfully made a driving layup. There. With just 10.3 seconds left, Liberty had the lead again.

The Misery Continues for the Chicago Sky

It has been a season to forget for the Sky till now. While they did lose key players like Angel Reese in the offseason, they are struggling with a host of other issues as well, including critical injuries.

One of the most significant ones was to Rickea Jackson. The rising star tore her ACL on May 17. So the Sky were left without one of their key rotational players. DiJonai Carrington and Courtney Vandersloot have also missed significant play time. Their star player, Skylar Diggins, is also not sugarcoating the situation.

“We gotta have more maturity and more leadership on and off the floor,” Diggins said to the media after the loss against Tempo last week.

“If it was just versus one team, I’d understand that, but now it’s been struggles. That’s a trend of ours. It’s disappointing. Really is. It’s frustrating,” she added.

The Sky are now 12th in the league with a 4-10 record. This is surprising since they started the season very well with a 3-1 record. If they hope to have a season that does not result in more of their star players leaving, they need to fix these issues plaguing them.

And they need to urgently close out the matches that they look like winning. Like this one.