Aces second-half comeback falls short in loss to Minnesota

Despite a fourth-quarter comeback effort, led by 24 points from A'ja Wilson, the Las Vegas Aces fell to the Minnesota Lynx, 87-74, tonight in Minneapolis. It's the Aces' second loss to the Lynx this week as Las Vegas drops the season series to Minnesota, 1-3.

From the end of the third quarter into the fourth quarter, Wilson had scored 11 straight Aces points, cutting down a 17-point Lynx lead down to five.

She said a Lynx fan was "jawing off at the mouth" at her, and she wanted to show them the Aces weren't going to quit battling.

Wilson compared the moment to a playoff game Dwyane Wade played with the Miami Heat in 2016 where a Charlotte Hornets fan was heckling Wade all game. The Hornets fan, known as "Purple Shirt Guy", was consistently in Wade's ear and Wade made an effort to play into the fan's antics. He'd go on to score 23 points and help Miami force a Game 7.

"That fan really got me going in a sense where I felt like I had to prove myself, and I thought I was past that in this league," Wilson said. "But it's always good to have a wake up call. I kind of guess I had my purple shirt guy game in a sense, but I really didn't go as crazy as D-Wade did and we didn't win. I felt like that was just where that energy came from, and I was glad it kind of sparked my teammates as well."

Despite getting beat on the boards, 37-to-17, and seeing Napheesa Collier record a career high 18 rebounds, Aces coach Becky Hammon said that the defensive effort was better than their game Wednesday against Minnesota. The issues came on offense through turnovers and struggles to get the fast break going. The defense forced the Lynx to turn over the ball 21 times, but the Aces could not capitalize on the opportunities.

"To turn them over 21 times, only get 12 points and we have zero fast break points, our problem was a little bit more on the offensive end tonight than defensive," Hammon said.

The Aces shot for a low 45% (26-of-57) from the field. Jackie Young (12 points), Tiffany Hayes (12 points) and Kelsey Plum (11 points) all broke double-scoring figures. Wilson eclipsed 4,500 career points with her 25 against the Lynx. She narrowly missed a double-double with seven rebounds.

Las Vegas drops to 17-11 on the year, its worst record this late into the season since it was 19-11 in 2019. It'll face another challenge Sunday against the Sky in Chicago. The Sky narrowly fell to the No. 2 team in the WNBA, the Connecticut Sun, 82-80, on Friday.

Throughout this challenging stretch Wilson has remained positive and believes that her team can get through all of this. Sunday's game against Chicago is critical for the standings as another loss could draw the gap between fifth and sixth place even closer. The Phoenix Mercury are in sixth place with a 16-14 record and are coming off a 82-80 win over the Atlanta Dream.

"If we can just continue to string little things together, I'm going to continue to be for my teammates always," Wilson said. "I'm gonna always still bet on us, no matter what."