Aces title campaign off to shaky start with blowout loss to Mercury

Las Vegas forward A'ja Wilson (middle) celebrates a third Ring Night in her career alongside guard Jackie Young (left) and head coach Becky Hammon (right). Photo Credit: Flash Gordon

A blowout loss last season catapulted the Las Vegas Aces to the championship. They may need to do it again after starting this year with a similar lopsided loss.

After celebrating a third title in the last four years, Las Vegas was thumped, 99-66, by Phoenix Saturday, May 9 from the T-Mobile Arena. It went down as the season opener for both clubs in the league’s 30th anniversary year.

“I don’t want to repeat what we did last year,” head coach Becky Hammon said. “That was not fun – the first half of the season. That’s not how we want to come out, that’s not the standard. It wasn’t acceptable last year and it’s not acceptable this year.”

Ahead of the competition, it was Ring Night for the Aces for the third time in four years. It culminated in the team’s first loss on Ring Night in those three tries in this WNBA Finals rematch from last year.

“I hate ceremonies like this,” forward A’ja Wilson said. “Obviously, you want to enjoy it but there’s a whole business side of it that you have to take care of. It’s hard to compartmentalize that at times.”

It will be a quick turnaround for the defending champs as they will get back to work tomorrow night. They will travel to Los Angeles to take on the LA Sparks with tip-off set for 3 p.m.

“The little details that we talk about that we feel are separation factors we’re just not doing them,” Hammon said. “Until we decide that we want to do them, we’ll continue to get our butts kicked like this.”

Mercury guard Jovana Nogic gets behind the Aces' defense for a layup. Photo Credit: Flash Gordon

The first timeout of the season came with Las Vegas looking up at a 12-3 deficit just minutes into a new year. What would soon come was a wire-to-wire loss that saw the team go down nearly 40 points at one point.

The Aces went down 12 points in the game’s opening quarter and would go down 21 points by the halftime break.

“We’re averaging giving up 31 points in the first quarter now over the course of [our last three games],” Hammon said. “And that’s just not good enough so we’re digging out of a hole. It puts a lot of pressure on your defense, your offense. Just a little bit of a snowball effect.”

Twenty-eight year old rookie Jovana Nogic scored all 19 of her points in the first half which included shooting 4-of-5 from three-point territory, Despite being a rookie in the WNBA, she has several years of international experience with the Serbian National team.

“I kind of feel like we weren’t overly-prepared for her to come in and be that effective in the game,” forward NaLyssa Smith said. “I feel like that’s a point of focus for us where we have to take every single player on the team seriously. There’s nobody that can’t play basketball, we’re all here for a reason so just giving everybody that respect and not letting them have nights like that.”

Despite the defensive adjustment on Nogic, Las Vegas couldn’t climb out of the nearly insurmountable hole. In fact, the lead jumped to 38 points in the third quarter.

Phoenix guard Jovana Nogic drills a deep three-pointer during Las Vegas' season-opening home loss. Photo Credit: Flash Gordon

Phoenix shot nearly 50% in the win while holding the home team to 41% from the field. In addition, the visitors shot 11-of-24 from deep while the champs shot a frigid, 4-for-19.

“There’s really no excuse,” Smith said. “We just got to get out there and do what we’re supposed to do.”

To make matters worse, the Aces were forced into 17 turnovers including 11 steals while being able to stress the Mercury into just seven the other way.

As a team, Las Veags did record eight blocks in the loss including two blocks and two steals from the reigning league Most Valuable Player, Wilson.

On offense, WIlson led the team in scoring with 19 points on 8-of-15 shooting to go along with four rebounds. Those four rebounds are the lowest in a fully-completed game for the first-ever four-time MVP since recording three against Connecticut in July of last year.

As a team, the Aces were outrebounded by two.

“I put a lot of pressure on myself,” Wilson said. “Only because I know how much I ask of my teammates and I can’t ask everything and anything of them if I’m not doing my job. I can’t hold everybody accountable if I can’t hold myself accountable.”

Guard Jackie Young was one of six players with a team-high six rebounds in the loss. In addition, she added 12 points on 5-for-15 from the floor.

For most of the game, Wilson and Young were the only two Las Vegas players in double-figures. That changed late in regulation after some scoring from both Smith and the newly-acquired guard Chennedy Carter.

Smith finished with 11 points and six rebounds while Carter chipped in with 10 points in 19 minutes. Carter played in her first WNBA game in over a year after spending last season in China.