Sydney Taylor walked off the court looking like she wanted to punch a wall.
The Sky had just scrawled their frustrating signature all over Barclays Center. They played 35 excellent minutes, built a 12-point lead deep into the fourth quarter and gave it all back, losing on a Liberty free throw in the final second.
It is a troubling pattern that probably will keep the Sky from becoming a playoff team.
But a more encouraging one is emerging, too: Taylor keeps giving them chances to win.
The rookie scored a career-high 31 points Wednesday in a game with seven ties and 10 lead changes that really should have belonged to the Sky.
Not bad for a Long Island kid playing at Barclays Center for the first time. About 30 family members were in the stands, and she reminded them that she relishes the biggest stages.
She was nearly unstoppable in the first quarter. She buried a step-back three-pointer and outjumped 6’4 Liberty star Breanna Stewart to score in transition. After another silky midrange jumper, Liberty assistant Courtney Paris looked visibly frustrated, as if to ask: Why can’t we stop her?
“She’s a hooper,” Liberty head coach Chris DeMarco said before the game. “She can score at all three levels. She plays not scared. She has really helped them.”
Quarters like that make the future feel immediate. Taylor can look like a finished product.
The second quarter offered the reminder that she is still a rookie. Her shot stopped falling, and she got scored on repeatedly.
“I think one of the bittersweet things about rookies that perform at such a high level early on is that you get caught up in all the things they do well that you forget to give them grace,” coach Tyler Marsh said before the game. “She still has learning curves that she’s going through.”
There are plenty. But there also has been obvious progress in the month since Taylor made her first start.
Taylor told the Sun-Times before Wednesday’s game that she feels more comfortable as a playmaker. She showed it with two smooth, one-handed feeds to center Kamilla Cardoso and finished with three assists.
After the red-hot start, Taylor’s second-half was more measured. There were fewer flashy shots, but she got to the free-throw line and buried huge three-pointers.
Help came in the third quarter from a very different kind of rookie, Aicha Coulibaly, who doesn’t score much but brings constant energy and activity — deflections, offensive rebounds and well-timed cuts.
Then, when the Liberty cut the Sky’s lead to one, the final handoff appeared to go to veteran point guard Courtney Vandersloot. She found Cardoso with a gorgeous pass, then hit a pull-up jumper to restore an eight-point lead with less than a minute left.
The general was going to make sure they finally pulled one out. Send them into the All-Star break with a little momentum. Keep their playoff hopes alive a little longer.
Until Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu hit two miracle three-pointers and drew a foul on another basket to complete the comeback.
“It felt like the Liberty made really big plays,” Vandersloot said after the game. “We were not perfect and we didn’t make enough plays but some of the shots that [Ionescu] hit, they just take the air out.”
The clutch loss mirrored Taylor’s first start against the Liberty a month earlier. Taylor hit a three-pointer in the final seconds to give the Sky the lead, only for Ionescu to answer with the winning layup.
Taylor has grown a lot since then — more comfortable creating for others and more certain that she belongs in moments like these.
The Sky, meanwhile, are still finding new ways to arrive at the same ending.