Forfeit.
It’s a word no athlete wants to be associated with as it brings a negative connotation of giving up. Unfortunately, after a horrendous travel experience, Las Vegas elected not to play last Friday against Washington.
The league gave the Aces a forfeit after the team failed to appear for the game.
The loss is a tough one for Las Vegas as they are just on the outside of the playoffs sitting in ninth place. The Aces currently sit at 12-16 and are two games behind Dallas for the final spot in the playoffs.
With the automatic win, Washington now jumps to a tie with Los Angeles for third place.
Backstory
Last Thursday, Las Vegas was set to fly to Washington at 11 a.m. However, after countless delays, their flight was finally canceled. The team was rerouted on a connecting flight to Dallas by 1:30 am and then en route to Washington.
After another delay, the team didn’t land in D.C until around 3:45 pm, only a couple hours before its 7 pm tip-off. Understanding the number of delays the team encountered, the league did push back the start time to 8 p.m.
But, as a team, Las Vegas decided not to play the game and released a statement on the cancelation at the time:
Full statement on tonight's canceled game in Washington. ???? pic.twitter.com/SBCypeCav8
— Las Vegas Aces (@LVAces) August 4, 2018
It seems that rescheduling the game was not a viable option as the regular season will be over in a couple of weeks. Also, Las Vegas and Washington are essentially playing every other day to close the season. All year every game has been pivotal in terms of securing a spot in the playoffs, but now they are even more important.
The top eight teams secure a spot in the post-season and only one team has clinched a spot, the Seattle Storm. It’s an unfortunate situation for the Aces as they make a push for the playoffs.
Maybe their gamble last week of not playing will come back to bite them — if they end up missing the playoffs.
