Second consecutive win over Washington has Las Vegas perfect to start 5-game homestand

Don’t look now but the Las Vegas Aces have won four straight home games.

They picked up a second straight win over the Washington Mystics Thursday, Aug. 13 from Michelob Ultra Arena in a rematch from Tuesday’s game.  This one was by a final score of 83-76 as the defending champs claimed the regular season series, 2-1

It’s a couple of games back-to-back now where we’ve won fourth quarters,” head coach Becky Hammon said. “We like that. That’s been a little bit of a struggle area for us. I see our defense picking up, that’s the main thing. That’s a tough team to hold in the 70s.”

With six wins in its last nine games, Las Vegas is now 24-11 on the year as it continues to tick toward the FIBA International break. Additionally, the win moves the team closer to the No. 2 spot in the league’s standings behind Golden State.

The road only gets harder for the Aces as they gear up for a Saturday matchup with the league-leading Minnesota Lynx. That game is scheduled for 5 p.m. from The House.

That will be the third game of this season-long five-game homestand.

Las Vegas went up 12 points in the game’s opening quarter but would have to fight off several Washington comeback attempts. At one point, the team even had to regain the lead after losing it in the second half.

In the second quarter, the Mystics went on an 8-0 run to trim the deficit to just a point.

Coming out of halftime, the Aces would go up by double-digits again only to have the visitors respond with a 9-0 run to get themselves back in it.

Soon after, that run would be stretched to 17-5 as the Mystics snatched the lead.

Hammon enforced several zone defenses in the outing including a 2-3, 3-2, and a 1-2-2 zone.

“I’m trying to win the game,” Hammon said. “We were mixing up looks, I thought it made their pick action, those high pick-and-rolls. It just helped us be more congested right off the jump being in the zone. So it was really just about mixing up looks, trying to keep them off balance.

“But yeah, all of this is preparation for the future. The more reps we can get at that and the more we can steal some possessions – I thought we stole some possessions late with the zone.”

Heading into the fourth quarter, Washington had shot 10 percentage points better than the eventual winner at 49% to 39% from the field. It was in that fourth quarter that Las Vegas went on a 12-2 run of its own after the game was tied at 62 apiece in order to go back up by double-digits, putting another comeback attempt in grave jeopardy.

Guard Jackie Young cashed in one of her five made three-pointers as part of that 12-2 fourth quarter run as she finished with a game-high 32 points.

Young also poured in 15 points in that fast-starting first quarter for the Aces. Her performance included capping the first 10 minutes with a buzzer-beater from beyond the arc.

While Young had a fiery first half, it was close to the opposite for forward A’ja Wilson as she recorded just three points on 1-of-5 shooting to go along with four rebounds and three assists in the first 20 minutes.

Wilson made the most of her passing despite her shooting struggles to start before finishing the night with four assists, one shy of sharing in the team-high with Young and guard Chelsea Gray.

As a team, Las Vegas dished out 19 assists on 24 made field goals en route to the win.

Wilson would close her effort with a season-low 15 points on 5-of-14 shooting. Reserve guard Jewell Loyd was the final player in double-figures with all 13 of her points coming in the last 12:48 of regulation.

“We want to hunt Jewell,” Hammon said. “We didn’t shoot well in the first half, told them at halftime those numbers are going to shift. We were 4-for-15 and then came out in the second half and went 6-for-10.

“That’s shooting sometimes but we want to get Jewell good looks, hopefully get her firing early. Obviously, she got going late but whenever we can get her going and get her going from three especially it gives a lot of space to everybody else.”