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First four-game win streak under Las Vegas’ belt after beating Connecticut
- Terrel Emerson
- Aug 9
- 3 min read
With about a month left in the regular season, the Las Vegas Aces have their first four-game win streak of the year.
Entering as winners of five their last six, Las Vegas added Connecticut to that list with a, 94-86, win Sunday, Aug. 10 from the Michelob Ultra Arena.
“I think in the start of the year we were kind of on our heels,” forward A’ja Wilson said. “The Aces have always had this swagger of like, ‘Nah, we’re here.’ And I feel like we had that swagger for too long and we lost our ability to punch back.
“We’ve been punched so many times that now we’re starting to punch back.”
A win means the Aces are now once again tied with the Indiana Fever for the fifth best record in all of the WNBA. Overall, the club is 18-14 this season amidst this four-game win streak.
Up next, Las Vegas will conclude a three-game homestand by welcoming in New York Wednesday, Aug. 13 with tip-off set for 7 p.m. The Aces are in the middle of a stretch that will see the team complete eight home games in 10 outings.
“We know how precious our games are here at home,” Wilson said. “And we’re going to try to capitalize on that as much as possible. It’s not going to be easy but I think as a team and as a collective we all have the mindset of we’re playing playoff basketball right now.”
A flagrant one foul call almost midway through the third quarter helped catapult Las Vegas into the win column. Future Hall-of-Famer Tina Charles caught guard Chelsea Gray with an elbow to the jaw while looking to avoid a screen while guarding Wilson.
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Connecticut found itself in the bonus with more than five minutes left in the third quarter. Before the third quarter horn, the Aces went up by as many as 11 points.
While going up by double-digits in the second half secured the win, the Aces had to dig out of a double-figure hole in the first half.
A hot shooting first quarter for both sides turned into an early 12-point lead in the second quarter for the visitors. During that first half, the Sun shot 54% from the field including a 43% mark from three-point territory.
“Sometimes we put our hands down and allow ourselves to get punched,” head coach Becky Hammon said. “There’s a difference between people making plays right? And making tough ones or whatever but that timeout [down 12] really pissed me off because it was us with our hands down taking punches.”
Las Vegas went on a 10-0 run to close the second quarter and head into halftime tied at 45 apiece.
“Well we got 10 stops in a row,” Hammon said. “That’s what changed so, as much as I wanted to get into them at halftime, I was pretty happy with 10 stops in a row to close the quarter.”
Wilson recorded another record-breaking stat line with the league’s first 30-20 game. She finished with 32 points on 13-of-25 shooting to go along with 20 rebounds.
The rebounding effort put forth by Wilson helped her team win the rebounding battle by 17 boards.
“I didn’t even know,” Wilson said. “As many greats as we’ve had in this league, it’s kind of a shocker that it’s just now happening. It’s a blessing, I love what I do.”
Guard Jackie Young added 21 points on a very efficient 9-for-14 from the floor as the only other starter in double-figures.
Reserve guards Jewell Loyd and Dana Evans combined to score 22 of the team’s 25 bench points, led by 12 points from the former. Make that now five straight double-figure scoring outings for Loyd and six in the last seven contests entirely.
Evans reached her 10 points on just five field goal attempts which included four makes.
“It’s what we’ve asked her to do for us all season,” Wilson said. “Making her understand that we trust her, we trust her on both sides of the basketball. But we also love the pace that she plays with and the energy that she plays with because we feed off that.”
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