Aces lose Smith to non-contact injury before beating Tempo for 2nd time

Las Vegas’ most recent win may have been marred by looming questions about a member of the starting lineup’s health.

The Aces beat the Toronto Tempo, 88-78, Sunday, Aug. 23 in the first of a home-and-home for the two franchises. It’s the second win for the defending champs over the expansion franchise after collecting the first of which back on July 20.

“We just kept pounding away,” head coach Becky Hammon said. “Got our defense going a little bit so that was good to see. At the end of the day, those are professional basketball p[layers over there and you have to come in with the appropriate respect and appropriate mindset."

Entering play on Sunday, Las Vegas trailed Golden State by a game for the second spot in the league’s standings. Overall, this year’s club is 26-13.

In the final showing before the break for the FIBA World Cup, the Aces will host the Tempo Friday, Aug. 28 from the Michelob Ultra Arena.

“Our roster is our roster,” Hammon said. “There’s no movement there. We’re still trying to, I think, find a version of our best selves. I think we have moments of it, I think we’re still trying to find the consistency of the best versions of ourselves. So that’s the goal, we’ve got five more games and they know how I feel about those five games.”

Forward NaLyssa Smith went down in the third quarter after catching a pass in transition to a non-contact injury favoring her left leg.

No update was given on her injury following the win.

Smith is in her second season, first full season, with Las Vegas and was part of last year’s championship run. This year, she’s averaging nearly 12 points a contest while hauling in about six and a half rebounds.

“The emotions are what they’re going to be,” forward A’ja Wilson said. “When you lose a sister to an injury, you never want to see that happen to anyone. But Lyss is a soldier, God has his hands on her. We’re going to be beside her through this whole process. Like Becky said, ‘Man down, man up.’”

Smith went down in a quarter where her team went up by its largest lead of the game to that point, 11, en route to a blowout win.

The Aces ran their lead to 20 points in the fourth quarter. To begin the outing, every starter scored before the first stoppage in play which came at the 4:29-mark of the first quarter.

“You just have to keep pounding away,” Hammon said. “It didn’t break open right away but you keep playing the right way, keep doing what you do defensively to get stops and go the other way.”

In that opening frame, Las Vegas shot 62% from the field on the way to shooting 52% for the entire contest.

Wilson went blow-for-blow with Toronto center Temi Fagbenle in the first quarter with the former scoring nine points versus the latter’s eight.

In fact, both players would score 13 points in the opening half. Fagbenle would be held scoreless in her 11-plus second half-minutes.

“We’ve just got to continue to execute at a high-level,” Hammon said. “That’s it. That’s what I’m concerned with, making sure the effort is there, [making sure our] consistency is there. They know our goals, they reached a couple of them today.”

Wilson, however, continued to pour it on as she finished with 27 points on 10-of-15 shooting to go along with seven rebounds and seven assists. She entered the game after being listed as questionable citing a back injury.

“The medical team made sure that I was feeling pretty good,” she said. “Right now, I’ve got to stay in rest and recovery mode. It’s not the best but they made sure I was ready for this game.”

Through the first three quarters of the contest, Wilson along with guards Chelsea Gray and Jackie Young accounted for 15 assists: six, five and four respectively.

In total, the Aces racked up 22 total assists led by Wilson’s seven assists which tied with Gray for the game-high.

Young was the only other player in double-figures with 21 points on 50% from the floor coupled with five assists.

Guard Mai Yamamoto had nine of the team’s 14 bench points in the win. Additionally, she had her mother, grandmother and sister in attendance as they made the trip over to watch her as a member of the WNBA for the first time.

“I think she’s had some good minutes with a lot of our bench players,” Hammon said. “I think incorporating her more with some of our starters – she’s going to have to be running with both crews. Both with the starters and both with the bench. She is up to speed, she knows all of our stuff – they called a play today that I can’t believe they called on their own but she knew it.”