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In the first meeting since last season’s WNBA Finals, the Las Vegas Aces and Connecticut Sun put on another memorable one as the former pulled out another victory to remain unbeaten.
Las Vegas beat Connecticut, 90-84, Tuesday, June 6 from the Mohegan Sun Arena in a matchup between the top two teams in this week’s power rankings. Both teams combined for a 12-1 record entering play.
“Any road win is a good win,” head coach Becky Hammon said. “I’m happy with how we started the game, we had been struggling a little bit coming out of the gates.”
The Aces are 7-0 now with one more game to play in Connecticut against the Sun to conclude this road trip. That game will be played Thursday, June 8 with tip-off slated for 4 p.m.
“I don’t think we’re playing our best basketball,” Hammon said. “I’m kind of happy we’re not playing our best basketball yet. But we always want to be improving and learning."
Las Vegas’ last loss came to Connecticut in last September’s WNBA Finals but have since reeled off 11 straight wins dating back to last season. The team’s franchise record is 12 straight victories.
Even after being up by as many as 19 points, the Aces had to withstand a thunderous comeback from the Sun. This was highlighted by a 12-0 run by the home team to cut the deficit down to three with less than four minutes left in the fourth quarter.
Connecticut guard Rebecca Allen went four-of-four from three in the fourth quarter, scoring 14 of her team-high 22 points off the bench.
“They had a wild card,” Hammon said. “Rebecca Allen comes in and just starts raining threes. She made more than our whole team combined. Stuff like that can happen, you have to be able to withstand runs like that or somebody getting hot. I thought we did that overall.”
As a team, the Sun went 10-of-26 from three-point range, making six more threes than the Aces who shot 27% from deep.
In addition, Connecticut won the second half by 11 points after going into halftime down 17. Coming out of the halftime break, Las Vegas was forced into six turnovers in the third quarter after having just six in the first two quarters combined.
Aside from the fourth quarter, Las Vegas was pretty locked in on the defensive end, limiting its opponent to 33% through the first three quarters. In the opening frame, the Aces jumped up by 11 on the scoreboard, dominating the paint to the tune of 28-12 in the first half.
“It’s especially important for us because we have a history with slow starts,” forward A’ja Wilson said. “So we knew we had to come in with the mindset of making sure we could take the first punch but also be able to throw it at the same time.”
Wilson and fellow forward Candace Parker combined to anchor the defensive effort, combining for six blocks and three steals.
“I think we’re definitely starting to grow better on the defensive end,” Wilson said. “So we’re building that trust and that communication factor of trusting that that we can switch, we can move big to big, we can give a little bit more space to the person that we’re guarding and it allows us to time shots. When you look at us, we’re a pretty big lineup across the paint so the biggest thing is protecting the paint and we do that by communicating.”
For the second straight game and fourth time overall this season, Wilson posted a double-double with a team-high 23 points and 10 rebounds this time around.
Young packed the stat sheet with 22 points, seven rebounds, six assists and three steals. With the Aces up four, she completed an and-one to put the team up seven with 62 seconds left to play.
That marked the fifth time she’s scored 20 or more points in a game this season.
“She’s put in the work, she has the physical tools,” Hammon said. “My whole thing with her – she’s such a lovely human being – I want her to get a little bit nastier at the end of the day. She has physical giftings and tools and she’s smart. She’s very smart and she puts in the work.
“So my challenge to her was just to be great because I think great is in there.”
Guards Kelsey Plum and Chelsea Gray added 17 and 14 points respectively.
The guard trio of Young, Plum and Gray combined for 19 of the team’s 25 total assists. Those 25 assists came on 32 made field goals for Las Vegas including racking up 10 assists on the team’s first 10 makes from the floor and 15 of the first 18.
“We’ve played together for a little while [now],” Young said. “It’s part of being unselfish, making the right plays. Whenever we’re able to get stops we’re able to get going in transition on offense so the ball was popping.”