Las Vegas slips under .500 again following rare loss to Indiana

Former South Carolina Gamecocks A'ja Wilson (#22) and Aliyah Boston (#7) battle in the paint during the Las Vegas and Indiana matchup from Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Photo Credit: Las Vegas Aces

Already sitting at .500 16 games through the season, the Las Vegas Aces put forth another lifeless performance in the team’s fifth loss in the last seven outings.

Entering play with 16 straight wins over Indiana, the Aces lost to the Fever, 81-54, Thursday, July 3 from Gainbridge Fieldhouse. The streak dated back to the WNBA Bubble in 2020 and was as current as an eight-point win for Las Vegas inside the T-Mobile Arena two weeks ago.

Indiana was coming off capturing this year’s Commissioner’s Cup championship.

“There’s not a whole lot to say,” head coach Becky Hammon said. “That’s a complete lack of professionalism to come in here with that effort. Complete lack of focus – they played harder yesterday in practice by a lot, not even close. So I don’t know how you step on the floor with 20,000 people in the stands and perform like that.

“That’s one of the worst – that is the worst offensive night I’ve seen as far as my four years of being here.”

From 8-8 to 8-9 on the year now for the Aces as this season-long road trip is set to continue. That 8-9 overall record includes a 3-5 mark on the road this season.

The five-game road trip will continue Tuesday, July 8 from the Mohegan Sun Arena where the team will face off against the Connecticut Sun. Tip-off is set for 5 p.m.

Aces forward A'ja Wilson fights through two defenders to get a paint field goal attempt up to the rim. Photo Credit: Las Vegas Aces

“The beautiful thing about our league is we have another day,” forward A’ja Wilson said. “We have another game to try and do better. But Becky called us bipolar and I definitely understand that because some nights we show greatness and sometimes we show crap.

“That ain’t what championship teams are.”

In a game where Las Vegas never led, the game got ugly from the very beginning with Hammon calling a timeout to settle down her team less than three minutes into the contest.

During the first couple of minutes, the Aces would commit two shot clock violations as part of four first-quarter turnovers. The home team would go up by as many as 11 points in the game’s opening frame.

“How many layups did they get?” Hammon questioned. “They were in the paint, downhill, layups all night. And quite frankly, they were [in] the first half of our first game.”

That lead would be extended every quarter including Indiana going up by 22 before halftime. Ultimately, Las Vegas trailed by as many as 27 points and did so in the fourth quarter.

Hammon called another timeout early in the second quarter on the heels of three straight made layups by the Fever. By the final buzzer, her team had lost the points in the paint battle, 38-20.

“I think it’s an effort thing,” guard Jackie Young said. “We come out, what seems like, flat every night. So we just have to get off to a better start. You saw the pace they were playing at and we didn’t match that.”

Las Vegas guard Jackie Young stands in her defensive stance during the team's big loss to Indiana. Photo Credit: Las Vegas Aces

In that second quarter, Indiana shot 9-of-11 from the field on the way to 64% for the first half and 49% for the entire game. The home team won the second quarter, 25-10.

“We haven’t been ourselves in a minute when it comes to the defensive side of the basketball,” Wilson said. “And that is something that us [as a] starting five have to buckle down and figure out. Because [the] offense is going to be crap sometimes, it’s a part of the game.”

Wilson led the team in scoring and was the only real bright spot for the group on a night to forget. She rattled off 10 points in the team’s shaky first quarter where it shot 5-for-19 from the floor.

Things wouldn’t get much better from that standpoint as the team would go 2-for-18 on field goals not shot by Wilson.

“The rhythm is very sporadic,” Hammon said. “I thought they were grabbing and holding us. It’s a rugby match, it’s a rugby match. And my team doesn’t want to play rugby back so we get our ass kicked.”

Wilson closed the game with 29 points on 9-of-18 from the field including an 11-for-13-mark from the free throw line.

At the end of the third quarter, Young was the second-highest scorer for the Aces with six points. She’d end the night with those same six points on 2-of-9 shooting.

“There has to be some fight back,” Hammon said. “If they’re going to allow that kind of physicality, my team has to step up and match that physicality. Period. We just get punked all night because one team is physical and one team is not.

Aces forward NaLyssa Smith drives to the rim during her first game with the team. Photo Credit: Las Vegas Aces

“They busted our ass in every kind of way [...] It’s one of the worst games I’ve ever seen.” 

The guard tandem of Chelsea Gray and Jewell Loyd combined to go without a made field goal through the first three quarters of the game. Gray picked up her first field goal in the fourth while Loyd would close the game without one for the first time in a regular season game in her career.

Both, Gray and Loyd, combined to score four points on a very cold 1-for-6 night from the floor.

“We had one person score more than two field goals and that was A’ja Wilson,” Hammon said. “After that we didn’t have anybody score more than two field goals – Jackie was 2-for-9. After that, that’s it.”

With more than six and a half minutes left in regulation, Hammon elected to empty her bench and reserve whatever stamina her starters had left in the tank.

Recently acquired forward NaLyssa Smith played in her first game for Las Vegas, entering as the first player off the team’s bench. She’d tally her first points as an Ace in the third quarter on a free throw.

Smith led the team in rebounding with seven as she faced off against the team where she made her WNBA debut.