Las Vegas Aces forward A’ja Wilson (22) celebrates after making a basket against the Dallas Wings during the first half of Game 2 in a WNBA basketball semifinal playoff series at Michelob Ultra Arena in Mandalay Bay Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2023.
Published Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2023 | 9:13 p.m.
Updated Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2023 | 11:06 p.m.
The support to console A’ja Wilson came in waves.
Hours after knowing she was not named the WNBA’s Most Valuable Player, everyone was quick to check on her. First, her parents — Roscoe and Eva — telling her it’s OK to be emotional; that it’s OK to be human and angry. Roscoe was driving and had to pull over on the side of the road to get on the phone and be there for his daughter.
Her teammates checked on her, knowing the work she puts in on a nightly basis for the Las Vegas Aces, both on and off the court.
“At the end of the day, she’s our leader,” said guard Jackie Young. “When she’s down, we just pick her up. We’re doing this for her.”
Later, it was Bev Hammon — coach Becky Hammon’s mother — who came through with the biggest bit of support one could provide.
“My mom made her cookies,” Becky Hammon said. “She even made me cookies. I was more upset than A’ja.”
What’s done is done. There’s no reversing the voting. It will go into the record books that Wilson finished third behind winner Breanna Stewart from New York and Connecticut forward Alyssa Thomas. One voter even gave Wilson a fourth-place vote.
But as Wilson’s coach put it, “I know what A’ja Wilson plays for,” Hammon said, “and that’s championships.”
The Aces are one win away from the opportunity to play for another one.
Wilson became the first player in WNBA history to record three straight 30-point games, going for 30 points and 11 rebounds, as the Aces held off the Dallas Wings 91-84 in Game 2 of the WNBA semifinals at Michelob Ultra Arena on Tuesday.
The Aces lead the best-of-5 series 2-0 and can close it out Friday at College Park Center in Arlington (6:30 p.m., ESPN). A win would put the defending WNBA champions back in the finals for the second consecutive year and the third time since 2020.
“I can’t control it, I won’t control it, and I’m OK with that,” Wilson said of not winning MVP. “I know who I am, what I play for, who I play for, know my why, and I just continue to be me.”
Wilson said Tuesday morning that it “hurt like hell” to not be named MVP for the third time in her career. After a season where she averaged close to 23 points and 10 rebounds on 55% shooting and led the Aces to the best record in league history, it wasn’t enough to receive that recognition.
It's not about the individual accolades for Wilson. It’s the standard that she sets. Her being honored is more for the shine of her teammates and the organization more than herself.
Wilson wants to be one of the best to ever play in the WNBA. She knows getting there is through the help of her teammates and coaches, not by herself.
Much like when she received her second straight Defensive Player of the Year trophy prior to Game 1 on Sunday. Center Kiah Stokes, the one Wilson calls the anchor of their defense, stood beside her. She took the trophy, did a quick wave to the crowd, put it down and played the game.
Hammon brought an index card to her pregame media availability Tuesday and was ready with the numbers: Stewart scored seven more points than Wilson this season but took 79 more shots. Thomas (1,446) and Stewart (1,365) played more minutes than Wilson (1,228), with Wilson posting her numbers in 30.7 minutes per game — 3.4 less than Stewart, and 5.1 less than Thomas.
If Wilson played the minutes Thomas and Stewart averaged, Hammon calculated, Wilson would have averaged close to 26 points and 11 rebounds.
“People didn’t do their homework,” said Hammon, who called for the WNBA to make their votes public. “Had I played A’ja more, perhaps in the fourth quarter, I think things are different. I’m just not a coach that believes in running up the score on people.
“A’ja was the most dominant player in the league, on the most dominant team, on the most dominant offense the league has ever seen, with the No. 1 defense,” Hammon continued. “I don’t know what more the girl has to do, other than the East Coast media has to wake up and watch our games.”
Any frustration that Wilson felt leading up to Game 2, she took it out on Dallas. Her teammates helped her out.
Chelsea Gray finished with 23 points and eight assists, and Kelsey Plum overcame a rough first half to score 18 points — 17 of them in the second half. Plum had 25 points in Game 1.
The Aces needed every bit of their guards’ production against a Dallas team that was expected to respond. The Wings trailed by as many as 14 points in the first half before cutting into the Las Vegas lead, and eventually tying it 49-49 early in the third quarter.
But the Aces answered with an 11-2 run, powered by two layups and a block from Wilson, to take a 60-51 lead.
There’s still plenty the Aces would like to clean up — they lost the turnover battle 12-8 and allowed 21 offensive rebounds, while losing the rebounding edge 40-39. But they got contributions on the boards from Young with nine and Gray with five.
“If the shots are just not daggers, that’s a big factor in momentum shifts,” Wilson said. “It’s on Kiah and I to make sure we keep tackling in, but I think our guards are starting to get a good momentum in that we need them as well.”
Hammon admitted everyone was emotional prior to the game, but the focus needed to be on Dallas. The Aces did enough to bottle that and take a commanding lead into Friday. No team has ever come back to win a series trailing 2-0 in league history.
Destiny seems to be on the Aces’ side. Even if she’s not recognized as the top player in the WNBA from an awards perspective, Wilson is on a level that’s worthy of it and is at the forefront of that destiny. Her team is one win away from getting the opportunity to defend their championship.
Just how she prefers it.
“I’m blessed,” Wilson said. “We played a great game. It was a good win we needed to have. It’s a matter of playing basketball and playing the game I love.”
Danny Webster can be reached at 702-259-8814 or [email protected]. Follow Danny on Twitter at twitter.com/DannyWebster21.
