Sunday brought a slow start for the Aces and a fast start for Mystic guard Ariel Atkins. Regardless, the two-time defending champions pulled out yet another gritty road win, 89-77, in the Nation’s Capital after falling behind by double-digits in the first quarter.
Atkins ended up leading all scorers with 36 points, but even that may not have been enough to give her the best performance on the floor. That’s because A’ja Wilson, per usual, did what A’ja Wilson does. The likely unanimous MVP tallied another 28 points and 17 rebounds to lead the way for the Aces.
“Ariel's a great guard,” Wilson said. “She's really good at what she does. She gets her team going, she gets others involved, but at the same time, she obviously is really good at just scoring on all three levels.
“When you get somebody like that on a heater, someone that's that good on that side of the basketball, on a heater, it's very hard to kind of slow them down. That's every good player. I don't think we could have thrown anything at her. She still would have made those shots because she just got rocking and rolling. I think as time went down, we still trusted our defense a little bit more and kind of got a little bit more physical and that kind of changed the game.”
It was Wilson’s fifth consecutive 20-point, 15-rebound game. As you can guess by now, yes, that’s another WNBA record.
“I don't really have a mindset,” Wilson said. “I just got to get the job done, especially if it's just me out there. Kiah (Stokes) normally takes my boards, so I leave that job to her. When it's just me out there, I try everything I can to get more possessions for us and just kind of be on that side of the basketball for my team. But I don't really have a knack for rebounding. That's not really my go-to. I like to score the basketball.”
Kelsey Plum continued to show that she’s back to the player we all knew she could be during her struggles at the start of the year, chipping in 22 points on an efficient 8-of-14 from the field. Plum, who struggled with efficiency during the Aces’ well publicized skid, has been a shining star for the team in that department since the return of Chelsea Gray allowed her to permeate back into her typical two-guard role.
Besides 17 points from Tip Hayes off the bench, it was a slow afternoon for the rest of the Aces. Jackie Young scored just seven points on 3-of-9 shooting, while Chelsea Gray went 1-of-8 from the field in a two-point outing.
The scoring discrepancy was even more drastic on Washington’s end, as Atkins was the only Mystic to even reach double-digits. Atkins shot 13-of-25 from the field in the performance.
The Aces are back in action on Tuesday, as Angel Reese makes her first trip to Vegas as a member of the Chicago Sky. Reese opened her NCAA season at T-Mobile Arena in November, where her top-ranked LSU Tigers were upset by Colorado.