Las Vegas posts largest win in franchise history over Phoenix

If the last win against the Phoenix Mercury weren’t enough, the Las Vegas Aces may have finally gotten their payback in full this time around.

In a drubbing of a matchup, Las Vegas sunk Phoenix, 106-58, Saturday, July 11 from the Michelob Ultra Arena. As a result, the Aces move to 7-4 at home after having gone 2-2 in their last four home showings.

“Going into Portland, I can’t remember a practice where we [didn’t] play offense,” forward A’ja Wilson said. “[Head coach Becky Hammon] really drilled defense into our heads and we need this. We need to continue to do this, this was a good showing for us but we can still do better a little bit.”

Overall, Las Vegas is now 17-6 on the year after having entered Saturday’s contest a half game back of league-leading Minnesota.

Saturday served as the first of back-to-back games for the Aces with another meeting against the Indiana Fever set for tomorrow night. Tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m. in that one from the Michelob Ultra Arena.

Indiana already claimed the first meeting of the year between the two clubs.

“Obviously, it’s a good momentum game,” Hammon said. “But it’s a whole new 40-minute game, we’ve got to start over. We’ve got to do the work all over.”

The blowout was evident early after Las Vegas went up by as many as 37 points before the halftime break. Much of it came on the heels of holding Phoenix to a 3-for-17 shooting start in the first quarter.

Mercury players Kahleah Copper, Alyssa Thomas and DeWanna Bonner were held to just seven points in the first half on 3-for-14 shooting. By the final horn, the trio combined to score 18 points on 8-of-28 from the field.

“Just disruption [and] physicality,” Hammon said. “You try and do your part, I thought they missed some shots obviously. I want to give credit to our defense as well, we had a hand in helping them miss as well.”

At one point of the second half, the Aces had more points in the paint than the Mercury had total points at 32 to 31. That was largely in part to another dominant performance from Wilson.

It began early in the form of a 12-point opening quarter for the first-ever four-time MVP, as her team moved to 12-2 in its last 14 games played with their superstar.

Wilson ended the night with 21 points and 15 rebounds for her 11th double-double of the season and her third straight. She is now three points away from passing Hall-of-Famer Lisa Leslie for 14th on the league’s all-time scoring list.

Frontcourt players Cheyenne Parker-Tyus and NaLyssa Smith added to the efforts with 15 and 14 points respectively.

“Cheyenne has got a grown woman type of style,” Hammon said. “She naturally likes the physicality so you put her next to the rim and she’s a problem for defenses. She knows how to score that basketball.

“[Lyss has been great for us. She’s really found a niche playing next to A’ja, finding her spots and she came in in great shape. She did a lot of offseason work.”

In her first game with the franchise, forward Justine Pissott entered for her first minutes to start the fourth quarter. The rest of the game felt like it would be hers entirely.

In the final 10 minutes of a blowout win, Pissott poured in 19 points on 7-of-8 shooting including five made three-pointers. In addition, she pulled in two rebounds and handed out an assist in her first career WNBA game.

“I would definitely say I was nervous,” she said. “But everyone kept telling me, shoot the ball when you go in and shoot with confidence. Coach Becky was like, ‘Go in there and do what you do.’”

Guard Chelsea Gray recorded the team’s second double-double of the night with 15 points and 12 assists. That helped spark an offensive effort that saw the team turn in 31 total assists versus just eight turnovers.

Las Vegas posted shooting splits of 51%, 40% and 88% in the win after a first half of 56%, 54% and 86% numbers.