Aces blitzed by Storm, blown out by 20

Las Vegas head coach Becky Hammon is pictured inside Climate Pledge Arena during a road game. Photo Credit: Las Vegas Aces

A third road game in the first four games of the season produced a second loss for the Las Vegas Aces, this time in dominating fashion.

A brief streak of back-to-back wins was put to an end via a, 102-82, loss to the Seattle Storm Saturday, May 25 from Climate Pledge Arena. It was guard Jewell Loyd’s first game back to the northwest since the offseason trade that sent her to Las Vegas.

Last season, the Aces swept the Storm out of the playoffs in the first round.

Through four games to start the year, Las Vegas sports a .500 record. It will get four days off before returning to action Friday, May 30. On that day, the Aces will host the return of two-time champion Kelsey Plum, who was also a part of that Loyd trade this offseason.

Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. from the Michelob Ultra Arena.

“My biggest thing was making sure that my teammates understand that we’re still early in the season and we’re still figuring out some stuff,” forward A’ja Wilson said. “It’s going to be a long season but hey we’re used to it. We’re going to keep our heads up high and it’s on to the next.”

Aces forward A'ja Wilson looks past several Storm defenders during a possession of the team's 20-point loss. Photo Credit: Las Vegas Aces

By halftime of this most recent loss, Seattle was on pace for 116 points after scoring 34 points in the opening 10 minutes. At one point of the second half, Las Vegas trailed by 27 points.

Late in the fourth quarter, the Storm reached the most points scored against the Aces in franchise history. Moreover, they had done it on less than 70 field goal attempts at the time.

“Undisciplined,” head coach Becky Hammon said. “The effort wasn’t there, the discipline wasn’t there – we’re breaking our own rules. Until the system is ran correctly you can’t make adjustments because you don’t know if Plan A is going to work.”

Seattle was red-hot all night to the tune of 60% from the field including 50% from three-point range. The team racked up 12 assists on its first 13 made field goals on the way to 32 dimes for the game.

Las Vegas’ 13 turnovers on the other end didn’t help matters as the home team scored 21 points off those mistakes.

Las Vegas guard Jewell Loyd acknowledges a teammate after a made basket in the team's loss to Seattle. Photo Credit: Las Vegas Aces

Loyd scored the first nine points of the game for the Aces on a 3-for-3 start with two makes from downtown. By the end of the first quarter, she compiled 12 points on 4-for-5 shooting and three treys.

For the remainder of the game, Loyd would be held to 0-for-10 the rest of the way with no makes on five more three-point attempts on her way to 14 points in the loss.

“Just staying active,” she said. “I feel like I got the same looks throughout the game. Some shots go in, some shots don’t.”

Fellow guard Jackie Young added 14 points of her own on 7-of-11 from the floor.

Wilson led all Las Vegas scorers with 15 points on 5-of-11 shooting. She also added five rebounds and a team-high four assists.

That ends a stretch of three straight double-doubles to start the season.

“It’s all a part of the game,” she said. “I’m not going to hang my head too much about this. It sucks honestly, I wanted to win for Jewell and everyone else that came out to support us. But it’s a part of the game.”

Rookie forward Elizabeth Kitley entered the game for the first time in the second half and proceeded to open her outing 4-for-4 from the field. She’d finish with 11 points off the bench to go along with five rebounds.

“They just weren’t guarding [forward Kiah Stokes],” Hammon said. “So we were playing 5-on-4 so I went with Kitley because I know she’ll go in there and try to demand the ball. We love Kiah’s defense but some teams just don’t play her so it’s hard to get an offensive flow when that happens.”