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After facing each other just two days prior, the Las Vegas Aces and Dallas Wings battled again Friday night in another hard-fought contest this time resulting in a different outcome.
While the Aces defended their home court on Wednesday, the Wings flipped the script from College Park Center Friday, July 7, handing Las Vegas its second loss of the season with an 80-78 victory.
Las Vegas had to overcome a 14-point deficit on Wednesday and again put itself behind Friday with a poor start and some inconsistent play.
“[Dallas] has owned the paint,” head coach Becky Hammon said. “Bottom line they smashed us in the paint. We shrunk our own court, we let their size become a factor. We were hesitant and tentative.”
Dallas outscored Las Vegas 46-22 in the paint and won the rebounding battle, 36-25.
Offensively, Hammon cited the Aces’ hesitation as a key to why Las Vegas faltered in the fourth quarter specifically, as they were unable to put away the Wings after building an 11-point lead in the second half.
“I saw a little bit of play not to lose in the fourth quarter,” Hammon said. “That is a pretty good way to make sure you lose.”
On the brighter side, one of the reasons that Las Vegas was in such a good spot late in the game was the play of all-star Kelsey Plum.
The point guard missed Wednesday’s game with a non-COVID illness but returned Friday to lead the Aces with 21 points, though it didn’t mean much to her given the result.
“It doesn't really matter how you play if you don't win,” Plum said. “We didn’t win the paint, we didn’t win the boards, and we lost the turnover battle. It’s hard to win games like that.”
The Aces now sit at 16-2 on the season, four games clear of the New York Liberty for the best record in the WNBA. The loss snapped a nine-game win streak.
Las Vegas will remain on the road for a matchup on Sunday against the Minnesota Lynx on Sunday, July 9 before returning home to Michelob Ultra Arena to take on the Phoenix Mercury on July 11.
Before then, the team will look to get their starts and turnover issues squared away.
Dallas jumped out to an early first-quarter lead thanks to consecutive turnovers by Las Vegas, whose 17 giveaways for the game never allowed them to pull away from Dallas.
Those turnovers were put to good use by Dallas, who saw strong scoring performances from several players, led by all-star guard Arike Ogunbawale’s 21 points.
The tentativeness that Hammon alluded to stagnated the offense at times and slowed things down for an Aces team that has typically scored at will.
A big reason for the issues on both ends for Las Vegas was simply due to Dallas’ size.
“They’re long and they’re big,” guard Chelsea Gray said. “I’m trying to think in the league if there is any team that is as big as them. They use their length really well.”
Dallas center Teaira McCowan registered 14 points and 12 rebounds, with five offensive boards. Forward Natasha Howard had 16 points and 11 rebounds of her own as the duo used their size to their advantage. In the last meeting between the two clubs, Howard recorded a season-high 32 points.
Las Vegas had its entire starting five reach double-figure scoring, getting 18 points for forward A'ja Wilson, 15 for guard Jackie Young and 14 from Gray. Forward Candace Parker added 10 points to round out the scoring.
As a team, the Aces didn't get any points from their bench.
Friday marked just the second game this season that the Aces were held under 80 points.
Hammon will hope that the turnover issues will only be a slight bump in the road for this team, given its season average is just 12.8 turnovers per game, the fewest in the league.
While there are lessons to be learned from Friday’s game, perhaps the Aces would be less irked by the result had the game’s final moments gone a bit smoother.
Down two points with under one second left, Las Vegas had one last attempt to win the game. As the inbound pass on the final play was in the air heading toward Young, the buzzer inadvertently went off.
The referees immediately recognized the mistake and afforded the Aces another chance, but their second attempt was no good.
Las Vegas couldn’t help but feel a bit annoyed at how the sequence panned out.
“That is pretty unacceptable, Hammon said.” That should never happen. I don’t know who did it. I don’t know if it was their clock or it was an official, but that was pretty close to about as unethical as you can get and unfortunate as you can get at the end of a game.”