LAS VEGAS -- A'ja Wilson was deep in thought as she left Michelob ULTRA Arena after the worst loss in franchise history. The Minnesota Lynx had demolished her Las Vegas Aces by 53 points in front of an ABC television audience that Saturday afternoon on Aug. 2. The Aces, 14-14 at the time with less than six weeks left in the regular season, had to pull themselves together for another game at home the next day.

And Wilson knew they needed a gut check.

"At first I thought, 'I don't want my teammates to feel everything I'm feeling right now,'" Wilson told ESPN. "Then I realized: How can I help them understand that this is the last time we're going to feel this way?

"I was dissecting the game in my head: What did [the Lynx] do that we could not do? It was just that they played harder.

See Full Page