Aces keep rolling, defeat Dallas for seventh straight win

A case can be made that no team has given the Las Vegas Aces more fits than the Dallas Wings.

Dallas is one of two teams to defeat the Aces this season. Their other meeting came down to the final moments before Las Vegas found a way to win.

The latest meeting on Sunday won't say that. It will say that the Aces won 104-91 against the Wings for their seventh straight victory and improved to 23-2 on the season, continuing one of the best seasons in WNBA history. It will say that the Aces won their seventh straight game by double digits and continue to make this quest for a second straight championship look easy.

But like the other two games, Dallas would not go away. The Aces led by as many as 20 points in the first half, only for the Wings to cut it to three in the fourth quarter. The Wings' size and length created pressure that the Aces struggled to overcome in the second half.

Yet it was the Aces, improving to 12-0 at home this season, that found a way once again. The last time the Aces lost a home game was July 19, 2022.

"Obviously a tough game," coach Becky Hammon said. "That's a good team. We have a lot of respect for them."

The size in Dallas' starting lineup can give any team fits. The Wings' front court of all-star forward Satou Sabally (6-foot-4), forward Natasha Howard (6-foot-2) and center Teaira McCowan can use physicality and length to their advantage.

That proved to be a matchup that A'ja Wilson not only was forced to take on, but one she relished.

Wilson, after being named the Western Conference Player of the Week for the 12th time in her career, finished with 22 points — her sixth straight game eclipsing the 20-point mark — and a season-high six blocks with all of them coming in the first half.

Though Wilson shot 7 of 15 Sunday after shooting 67.6% in her past five games, she went 7 of 7 from the free-throw line.

"My biggest thing is making sure I'm there for my teammates, just trying to be the anchor of the defense, and just trying to be the best player I can be on both sides of the basketball," said Wilson, the reigning Defensive Player of the Year. "It was just my day. I had six blocks, but it's a team thing."

Kelsey Plum finished with a game-high 28 points, and Chelsea Gray had 27 points and eight assists to help pace the Aces' offense. Alysha Clark made all four of her 3-point attempts, with the four combining to score 85 of the Aces' points.

One omission from that list was fellow all-star Jackie Young, who finished with just nine points on 3 of 10 shooting and 1 of 5 from 3-point range.

Despite that rough outing — and choosing to get shots up after a 13-point win — Gray spoke with high praise of her teammate for her defensive work. Young held Dallas guard Arike Ogunbowale, one of the top scorers in the league, to 6 of 18 shooting.

"She was making looks difficult and not letting (Ogunbowale) get into a rhythm," Gray said. "I know Jackie was watching film on it and trying to get better individually. She was the head of the snake for that one."

If the Aces could find a way to bottle up their first quarter and use that for games against the Wings moving forward, they would gladly take that. Las Vegas shot 68% (13 of 19) in the opening 10 minuets while holding Dallas to 38.1% (8 of 21).

But Dallas rallied by way of its size. The Wings outrebounded the Aces 41-30 and had a 15-3 edge in offensive rebounds — Dallas also had a 21-7 advantage in second-chance points.

McCowan had eight of those offensive rebounds, finishing with 25 points and 14 rebounds.

The Wings cut the lead to 81-78 with 7:29 remaining, only for the Aces to answer with a 12-6 run over the next three minutes. Young's 3-pointer with 4:06 remaining, her only basket of the second half, pushed the Aces' lead to 93-84.

"They hurt us on the glass," Hammon said. "I thought they were more forceful, more intentional in trying to get downhill."

Dallas was the last team to defeat the Aces, 80-78 on July 7 in Dallas. Two days prior to that at home, the Aces withstood a Wings rally to win 89-82.

It's the sixth time this season the Aces have crossed the 100-point mark in a game. For context, the rest of the WNBA has seen teams hit the century mark 14 times.

All of that results in the Aces continuing their historic run. They're the first team since the 1998 Houston Comets to win 23 of their first 25 games. The Comets finished that season with a 27-3 record and won the WNBA title.

The Aces have the daunting task of trying to maintain that dominance over the final 15 games of the season. Perhaps that's why the All-Star break came at the perfect time. This was only their fourth game in 18 days.

They had a chance to recharge, and tolerate each other again.

"I was very happy not being around my teammates because they get on my nerves," Wilson said jokingly. "Just that time to decompress and not think about the game, you get that itch back when you get back on the court. We're like sisters. We get heated, we get annoyed with each other. We go our separate ways, but when we come back, we're locked in and we're tight."

Danny Webster can be reached at 702-259-8814 or [email protected]. Follow Danny on Twitter at twitter.com/DannyWebster21.