Las Vegas Aces forward A’ja Wilson (22) goes up for a shot between Connecticut Sun forwards Olivia Nelson-Ododa (10) and Liz Dixon (22) during the second half of a WNBA basketball game at Michelob Ultra Arena in Mandalay Bay Saturday, July 1, 2023.
Published Saturday, July 1, 2023 | 2:05 p.m.
Updated Saturday, July 1, 2023 | 4:50 p.m.
Becky Hammon would like for the Las Vegas Aces to face adversity at some point.
She might have to wait a little longer for that to happen, because the Aces don’t appear to be slowing down any time soon.
The defending WNBA champions won their eighth consecutive game, and improved to a league-best 15-1 on the season, in dominant fashion with a 102-84 victory over the Connecticut Sun in a Finals rematch at Michelob ULTRA Arena on Saturday.
It’s the 10th time this season the Aces have won a game by double digits and seven of them have come during the winning streak that began after a 94-77 loss to the Sun at Mohegan Sun Arena on June 8. Las Vegas has outscored opponents by 153 points during the run and are the third team in league history to have a plus-250 point differential through the first 16 games of the season.
And they’re doing it with a smile.
“This group is a lot of fun,” said guard Kelsey Plum.
A’ja Wilson recorded her 10th double-double of the season, and 64th of her career, with 23 points and 13 rebounds — one day after signing a two-year extension to remain with the franchise that drafted her No. 1 overall in 2018 — and eclipsed the 20-point mark for the 10th time this season.
Plum, who was named to her second All-Star team before the game and was last year's All-Star Game MVP, scored a game-high 25 points while Candace Parker had 15 points to go with eight assists to help the Aces move to 9-0 at home this year and post their 14th straight victory at home.
Plum is the fourth Aces player to represent the franchise in the All-Star Game that will be held July 15 in Las Vegas. She joins Wilson, guards Chelsea Gray and Jackie Young, and Hammon as the coach.
“People talk about how fun we are to watch, this and that,” Hammon said. “I come to work every day with these guys and they’re not only phenomenal basketball players, but they’re phenomenal people and they’re fun.”
It’s easy to have fun when the Aces make things look flawless.
It doesn’t matter who’s lining up opposite the Aces right now. The New York Liberty, who are seen as the biggest threat to the Aces’ back-to-back title chances, trailed by as many as 27 points in Las Vegas' 98-81 win Thursday night. A Liberty team featuring four All-Stars and two MVPs looked overmatched with the Aces assisting on 32 of their 40 made shots.
The Sun went into the rubber match of the season series with the Aces without leading scorer Brionna Jones, who is out for the year due to an Achilles injury, but still have All-Stars Alyssa Thomas and DeWanna Bonner propelling Connecticut to the top of the Eastern Conference standings.
The Sun hung around late in the first half, trailing 52-46 after the Aces held a double-digit lead for most of the half. Las Vegas closed the second quarter on a 7-2 run to push the lead back to 11 at 59-48.
Hammon wasn’t pleased with the Aces’ defensive effort and an “honest conversation,” as Wilson put it, was had in the locker room. Whatever was said clicked instantly, because the Aces opened the third quarter on a 17-0 run and led by as many as 29 at one point.
“Becky makes sure we never lose sight of who we are. We have to play Aces basketball for 40 minutes,” Wilson said. “She makes sure we never have lulls and are never complacent in where we are.”
It was a nearly identical situation from Thursday. The Aces led the Liberty 49-42 heading into the half, then opened the second half on a 24-9 spurt that eventually led them to pull away.
“Our clips at halftime were all of us being soft. Not touching anybody, being reactionary instead of not dictating action,” Hammon said. “The film at halftime we went through was glaring. I can say it to them in the huddle, but when you see it, it hits different.”
The Aces shot 50% from the floor. That marked just the third time the Sun have allowed 50% shooting from an opponent this season with — two times have been against Las Vegas.
What’s more surprising is the Aces reached the century mark in scoring for the third time this year despite having one of their worst shooting performance from 3-point range (7 of 23). Still, they’re averaging a league-best 93.7 points per game and are rivaling the 2010 Phoenix Mercury (93.9 PPG) for the best output ever in a season.
They’re even outsourcing teams by 15.6 points per game, the largest differential through 16 games in WNBA history.
No matter the opponent or the magnitude of the game, the Aces are dominating at a level that hasn’t been seen since the early days of the league. In a span of three days, they’ve handled the East’s best teams with relative ease.
“We’ve grown as a veteran team in terms of over the years,” Plum said. “I think that’s a testament to people locking in.”
Danny Webster can be reached at 702-259-8814 or [email protected]. Follow Danny on Twitter at twitter.com/DannyWebster21.
