.png)
Young’s triple-double, Wilson’s double-double carries Las Vegas to win to close road trip
- Terrel Emerson
- Jul 29
- 3 min read
All-stars Jackie Young and A’ja Wilson stepped up in a big way to close out a four-game road trip for the Las Vegas Aces as they picked up a second straight victory.
Las Vegas dumped Los Angeles, 89-74, Tuesday, July 29 from the Crypto.com Arena. The win over the Sparks allows the team to turn in a 2-2 record at the conclusion of this four-game road trip.
“When you stink, that’s not fun,” head coach Becky Hammon said. “When you’re getting your butts kicked, that’s not fun. We had to put some games behind us at the beginning of this road trip. We felt like we dropped one to Indiana, got our butts whooped by Minnesota and it’s just about regrouping.”
Consecutive wins now have the Aces at 14-13 on the year after entering the contest tied with Washington for the seventh spot in the league standings. Following the victory, the former back-to-back champions are now in sole possession of seventh and are a half game back of the Indiana Fever for the sixth slot.
Las Vegas will return home to host Minnesota Saturday, Aug. 2 for a noon tilt from the Michelob Ultra Arena. In the second game of this most recent road trip, the Lynx beat the Aces by 31 points.
“They’ve been bringing the competitive juice,” Hammon said. “It doesn’t matter scheme-wise what you’re doing defensively or offensively, you’ve got to bring that energy and that competitive nature into every game.”
Young had all the makings of a big night by halftime with an 11-point, seven-rebound, six-assist stat line during the first half. She’d close the night with her first career triple-double with a final tally of 18 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists while also hauling in three steals to land fourth on the team’s all-time steals list.
“I think her passing people are starting to notice,” Hammon said. “One of her passes tonight was a left-handed dart across the lane which is incredibly hard to do. Not only to see it with the vision but to place a strike right on your teammate’s hand.”
That singular effort accounted for nearly half of the Aces’ 25 total assists on the night. Guard Chelsea Gray added nine assists of her own in the win.
“I feel like we’re still in process,” Hammon said. “We’re getting better. We’re getting better and the ball is moving cleaner. We’ve still got some cutting and spacing issues to work out.”
Wilson had a historic start to the game with a blistering 17 points on a perfect 8-of-8 from the field. She’d start the game with 10 makes on her first 10 attempts on her way to 23 first half points.
Eventually, she’d finish the night with a game-high 34 points on 16-of-23 from the field to go along with 10 rebounds, four assists, three steals and four blocks.
“[Jackie and A’ja] are really tough in the pick-and-roll,” Hammon said. “They’ve kind of fed off each other, I put them in a lot of actions together.”
Reserve guard Dana Evans was the final player in double-figures with 10 points in just under 20 minutes.
As a team, Las Vegas was locked in defensively from the very start. It held Los Angeles without a field goal for the first 2:33 of the game before going up 18 points in the game’s opening frame.
By the final buzzer, the Aces forced the Sparks into 20 turnovers in the win while converting it into 19 points on the other end. For the second time in five games, Las Vegas racked up 13 steals as a collective.
“Just being aggressive on the defensive end,” Young said. “Being locked in on the scheme and executing the scheme. Just taking pride in our defense. We know we can score the ball but I think the biggest thing is just being locked in on the defensive end.”
Comments