Streak hits 16 straight wins as Aces conclude regular season in Los Angeles

Las Vegas guard Jewell Loyd gets in her defensive stance against Los Angeles guard Kelsey Plum. Photo Credit: Las Vegas Aces

A historic shooting performance serves as a regular season sendoff for the Las Vegas Aces whose last two months of the season have drastically changed the team’s direction.

Wrapping up the regular season, Las Vegas extinguished Los Angeles, 103-75, Thursday, Sept. 11 from Crypto.com Arena. The victory locks up the No. 2 overall seed ahead of the WNBA Playoffs which are set to start this weekend.

“[Good way to end the regular season] on a good note,” head coach Becky Hammon said. “All of our energy and focus is going to this next round. Onto Sunday and Seattle, we just want to get back to Vegas and get back to work. This is the really fun part of the year.”

After sitting with a 14-14 overall record in early August, the 16-game win streak has allowed the Aces to conclude their regular season with a 30-14 overall record. By rattling off 16 straight wins, the team is now tied for the second-longest win streak in league history with the 2014 Phoenix Mercury.

Both teams trail the 18 straight wins set by the 2001 Los Angeles Sparks. In addition, the Mercury and Sparks both added championships on the backend of its record-setting season.

“Our vision was always going to be, ‘Keep the main thing the main thing,” forward A’ja Wilson said. “Which was just playing our basketball at the right time. Did it look like the way we thought it should look like? No but I feel like that’s everything in life.”

With all playoff matchups set up, Las Vegas will enter this weekend’s WNBA Playoffs as the No. 2 seed with a series set against No. 7 Seattle. That series against the Storm is set to begin Sunday, Sept. 14 from Michelob Ultra Arena with tip-off set for 7 p.m.

Aces forward A'ja Wilson lines up a block on former teammate Dearica Hamby. Photo Credit: Las Vegas Aces

“It’s going to be a good one,” Wilson said. “I think it’s probably going to be one of the better playoffs we’re going to see in the W because everybody is playing well at the right time. But we’ve got to buckle in on our matchups and our assignments.”

In this regular season finale, the Aces drilled four of their first six three-point attempts on their way to a 7-for-12 mark in the opening quarter. While doing that, the team held the Sparks without a downtown make until the second quarter after an 0-for-7 start.

Guard Jackie Young accounted for four of the seven first quarter made threes for Las Vegas en route to 12 points in the opening frame. She’d finish with 17 points and a game-high 12 assists.

While Young knocked down five threes in the game, it was reserve guard Jewell Loyd who led all players with seven made treys for 21 points in the win.

Las Vegas guard Jewell Loyd takes a corner three inside Crypto.com Arena. Photo Credit: Las Vegas Aces

In the first half, Loyd passed Hall-of-Famer Lauren Jackson for 14th on the all-time scoring list.

In total, the Aces set a new single-season record for the most made three-pointers in a game with 22 makes on 45 attempts for a 49% finishing mark.

“I really felt like they were this the whole time,” Hammon said. “It took a little longer than I’d like it to develop, chemistry-wise and trust-wise and ball movement-wise. But they got there, they really buckled it and started to realize, they’re really better together.”

Wilson didn’t hit double-figures until the second half but would ultimately lead all scorers with 23 points to go along with a game-high 19 rebounds. By doing that, she secured a point-rebound double-double average for the second straight season.

“I love what I do,” she said. “I love what I do and I’m very passionate with what I do. So every single time I step foot on the court, I don’t take a moment for granted.”

While shooting 9-of-17 from the field, Wilson was a perfect 3-for-3 from three-point range. The last of those three makes set the new record in the fourth quarter with the team’s 20th of the night.

“If anything it just reminds me of how we practice,” Wilson said. “Sometimes our practices look like this and we’re clicking on all cylinders and we’re feeling good. It’s great to now see it in-game and now it’s working for us.”

Guard Chelsea Gray added a double-double of her own with 15 points and 10 assists while fellow starter NaLyssa Smith chipped in with 10 points.

As a team, Las Vegas racked up a whopping 35 assists on 38 made field goals. The WNBA single-game team assist record is 37.

“It speaks volumes as to how our offense is running,” Wilson said. “We love to keep the ball popping, it’s something that Becky harps on a lot. And it’s something that we probably struggled with in the first half of the season was just ball movement, player movement because we’re so talented across the board that we loved our matchups.”