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Already being tied for the best start through 25 games in WNBA history was not enough for the Las Vegas Aces as they continued their dominance at home while extending their most recent win streak.
Las Vegas throttled Atlanta, 93-72, Tuesday, Aug. 1 from the Michelob Ultra Arena. In the lone meeting between the two teams coming in, the Aces won by five points. With this win, Las Vegas punched a ticket to the playoffs becoming the first team this season to do so.
“This is just the beginning honestly,” forward A’ja Wilson said. “Playoffs is a whole other season and right now we just have to focus on getting out of the regular season.”
Now, the Aces sit at 24-2 to this point with 14 more regular season games to play. The most recent win ran the team’s win streak to eight straight wins. Moreover, the team is now 13-0 at home and have won 18 straight games from The House dating back to last season.
Las Vegas’ brief two-game homestand is over and the team will now head back to the road for two games beginning with a date with New York at the Barclays Center Sunday, Aug. 6. This month, the Aces have four meetings with the Liberty scheduled including the Commissioner’s Cup title game.
Sunday’s matchup between these two teams is slated for 12 p.m.
“If you can’t get up to play New York, I think you’ve got to check your pulse in this league,” head coach Becky Hammon said. “We have a ton of respect for them, they have so many weapons [and] a great coaching staff. We’re going to be in for some battles.
A stark difference in three-point shooting in the second quarter provided the needed spark for Las Vegas en route to another 20-point win. After not making a three in the first quarter in two attempts, the defending champs went 7-of-9 in the second to take a stranglehold of the game.
It was a 15-2 overall run between the close of the first quarter and early parts of the second quarter that allowed Aces to go up double-digits on the way to an 18-point first half lead.
“We just started getting back into our flow,” second-year guard Kierstan Bell said. “We started playing Aces basketball. It’s all about us, we’re never really worried about our opponent. When we lock-in and dial-in, it’s hard to beat us.”
Guard Jackie Young drilled four straight three-pointers during the run to help the team stretch its lead. She scored 18 of her game-high 24 points in the first half to go along with four steals.
This season, Young leads the lead in three-point percentage and entered the contest top five in total made threes. She has improved her three-point percentage in each of the last four seasons.
“I think it’s just her confidence,” Wilson said. “It kind of pisses you off if in your rookie year, people didn’t guard you – it would piss me off if people didn’t guard me. I think that there fueled her offense in her being like, ‘No, I need to be a threat.’”
That second quarter surge from Young sparked a barrage from beyond the arc from Las Vegas which included fellow guard Kelsey Plum knocking down a deep three in front of the team’s bench as the shot clock winded down.
The dagger came in the form of back-to-back threes in the fourth quarter by Bell. At the time of her treys, Atlanta had cut the once 18-point lead down to seven.
By the final buzzer, the Aces racked up a 48% mark from three on 11 makes.
“Coach is always going to tell us to keep shooting and that’s what Jackie did,” Bell said. “She knocked four of them down – we wanted her to get that fifth one off that curl but it was a little short. We just told her to keep shooting.”
After tallying 15 total points in the last five games, Bell recorded a career-high 15 points in just 17 minutes of action.
“She had a great game,” Wilson said. “She has flourished and grown tremendously in this game. She had an awesome game tonight and when you talk about being a pro and being on a roster that’s very, very hard to be on, she’s always ready when her name is called.”
The Dream opened the game a perfect 3-for-3 from the field but as the Aces’ defense stiffened, it’d forced its opponent into five straight misses.
Atlanta star Rhyne Howard was limited to six points on 3-of-10 from the field. In two games against Las Vegas this season, she has 21 total points on 8-of-25 shooting.
“I think it’s individual attention to detail,” Hammon said. “We have a system and schemes and everybody has to know it. We have to know what we’re doing on this player, we have to know what we’re doing on this player. It’s the lock-in factor.”
Wilson posted her 16th double-double of the season with 20 points and 11 rebounds powered by 11 points in the first quarter. By game’s end, she tied Hall-of-Famer Tamika Catchings for fifth most 20-point, 10-rebound games in her career with 56.
“I feel like I have a lot more winning and a lot more giving to this game before I can really hang my head up there and say, ‘I’m one of them,’” Wilson said. “But I’m so blessed in the situation that I’m in. I’m very happy and pleased with where I am and I love the future of what this franchise is going to bring.”
Plum and fellow guard Chelsea Gray rounded out the double-digit scoring by the starters with 14 and 10 points respectively. The latter added seven assists bolstered by five in the first quarter.
Gray was named Western Conference Player of the Week by the league earlier in the day.