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Liberty lock down on Aces in second half, claim first of three meetings
- Terrel Emerson
- Jun 15, 2024
- 3 min read
More than a month into the regular season, the Las Vegas Aces are still unrecognizable to their head coach.
Las Vegas dropped to .500 on the year once again after losing to New York Saturday afternoon by a final score of, 90-82, from the Michelob Ultra Arena. This marked the first of three meetings between the two clubs while counting as the first contest between the pair since Game 4 of last year’s WNBA Finals.
“We don’t have an edge,” head coach Becky Hammon said. “And we have not had it since day one in training camp and I felt it and I tried to address it but we’re not that hungry.”
Including the postseason and Commissioner Cup title game, the Aces and Liberty met nine times with the former taking five. Saturday’s win pushed this year’s New York squad to its eighth straight win while Las Vegas slips to 6-6 with a 3-4 mark at home.
The Aces have two more games remaining on this three-game homestand with a Wednesday night outing against the Seattle Storm looming. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. from the Michelob Ultra Arena.
“Just [be] more defensive-minded,” forward A’ja Wilson said. “They have a great roster obviously with the newcomers that they have. They’re really playing good basketball right now. For us, we have to just find our niche [and] find who we want to be.”
Las Vegas began both middle quarters with respective 10-2 runs to first get back into the game and then to take a small lead just after halftime. Early in the second quarter, the team’s spurt tied the game at 30 apiece while the third quarter run netted the team a six-point lead.
That second run was answered by New York in the form of a 14-0 run to regain control.
“It shouldn’t have to be much of a message,” Hammon said. “14-0 should be enough of a message. That should be a message in itself – I think I was talking about discipline during that run.”
Ultimately, the Aces went scoreless for nearly five minutes and would muster just seven points over the final 6:32 of the third quarter. The Liberty would stretch the lead to as many as 18 points in the fourth.
New York center Jonquel Jones scored a career-high 34 points on 12-of-16 from the field with four made threes.
“When you go into making scouting reports, it’s like, what are you willing to live with?” Hammon said. “It’s not just the threes, it’s the beautiful looking threes that they got.They were HORSE shots but it all starts with the person guarding the ball.”
Guard Kelsey Plum led Las Vegas in scoring with 22 points on 8-for-13 shooting after being held scoreless in the first quarter. Close to three minutes into the second quarter, she jumped into the scoring column and would then cash in the three to tie the game at 30 as part of that 10-2 run.
Wilson tallied 21 points on 9-of-16 from the floor to extend her consecutive 20-plus point outings to 17 straight games.
“I love my teammates so much that I will take any hit for them,” she said. “Good, bad, ugly. I’m going to go out there and I’m going to try to be the best – I get yall saying ‘Best player in the world’ and it looks great but I want to be the best person. I want to be the best teammate because that’s how I get the best out of my team.”
After scoring a career-high 34 in the team’s last game, guard Jackie Young was held to 10 points on 12 field goal attempts. Nine of those 12 tries came from beyond the arc with two of them falling.
As a team, the Aces went 11-for-34 from three-point range with four coming in the last 2:25 of regulation.
“We haven’t shot well,” Hammon said. “We’re missing open threes and I have to think that worm will turn. It typically always does.”
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