Aces knock off Sparks behind A'ja Wilson's 29 points

The NBA is set to take over the city next week when the Las Vegas Summer League begins its 11-day run at the Thomas & Mack Center, but on Friday it was the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces who took center stage.

With boxer Floyd Mayweather and Raiders owner Mark Davis sitting courtside and a boisterous 5,124 in the stands behind them at the Mandalay Bay Events Center, the Aces got a taste of big-time WNBA action against one of the league’s premier teams in the Los Angeles Sparks. It felt like an event, and the Aces made the most of the spotlight, playing their best game of the season to knock off the Sparks, 94-78.

Rookie center A’ja Wilson battled through a slow start to post 29 points and nine rebounds, and second-year point guard Kelsey Plum went for 14 points, nine rebounds and five assists.

Los Angeles came into the game in first place in the league standings and looked very much like one of the WNBA’s elite teams at the outset, opening the game with a 10-2 run and prompting Aces coach Bill Laimbeer to call a quick timeout. Las Vegas righted things quickly, however, and a 16-5 run gave the Aces a three-point lead at the end of the quarter.

Plum’s layup ahead of the buzzer pushed the Aces’ lead to 44-37 at halftime, and Wilson’s 11 third-quarter points made it 73-62 heading into the final period.

The Sparks closed to within 75-68 with 7:40 to play, but the Aces responded with a 9-1 run over the next three minutes to put the game out of reach. Wilson totaled 10 points in the fourth quarter and dominated Sparks star Candace Parker on both ends of the floor. Wilson notched her 12th 20-point performance of the year, while Parker, a two-time WNBA MVP and the 2016 Finals MVP, was held to seven points on 3-of-11 shooting.

Wilson said beating a marquee team like Los Angeles shows how good the Aces can be when they play a complete game.

“I think it says a lot about us,” Wilson said. “I think it says we’re growing. We’re really, really growing, especially looking back at how we started off. In the second half we had great energy and that’s what we need over the course of 40 minutes. We picked it up and that’s what we need, and I think that goes to show that’s the type of team that we are. We can do things and accomplish things, but we’ve just got to be locked in for 40 minutes.”

The Aces are now 6-11 on the season and 2.0 games behind eighth-place Atlanta for the league’s final playoff spot.

Wilson made 10-of-20 shots from the field and 9-of-11 from the free-throw line, and she also compiled four assists as Parker struggled to keep up defensively. Parker picked up her fifth foul with 6:14 left in the fourth quarter and subbed out with 5:18 on the clock. The Sparks trailed by 16 points at the time, and Parker never checked back in.

Plum connected on 4-of-7 from the field and knocked down two of her three 3-point attempts, and she did not commit a turnover in her 31 minutes. Head coach Bill Laimbeer called it her best performance of the season and said he is giving Plum more freedom with the offense as the season goes on.

Plum said the Aces’ game plan was to push the pace.

“I’m just trying to do what coach needs me to do, and that’s pushing the ball in transition and getting it to A’ja Wilson and [Kayla] McBride,” Plum said. “L.A. is so good defensively, especially when they set up their defense, it’s so hard to score against. We were just trying to run.”

The Aces will have one day off before heading to Los Angeles to play a return game against the Sparks on Sunday.

Mike Grimala can be reached at 702-948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Mike on Twitter at twitter.com/mikegrimala.