Loyd, Young deliver as Aces win home opener

LAS VEGAS — How about a little opening night drama?

And how about Jewell Loyd providing it?

The WNBA veteran who won more than a few games while a member of the Seattle Storm, delivered at the very end to rescue her new team with a corner 3-pointer with 1.9 seconds remaining and giving the Las Vegas Aces a come-from-behind 75-72 win over a young and scrappy Washington Mystics squad that came to Michelob Ultra Arena Friday night without fear and deserved a better fate.

Washington squandered an 11-point lead and was simply unable to close out the game in falling to 2-2. The Aces, who had little go right for them for the majority of the contest, showed why experience matters in this league.

Pressure? They know how to handle it. Fear of failure? Not this group. Not when Jackie Young is banging home shots from everywhere en route to a 25-point performance and Chelsea Gray is doing Chelsea Gray things like finding open teammates or getting to the rim herself and converting.

And on a night where A’ja Wilson wasn’t able to dominate in her usual fashion, just 15 points (she did grab 12 rebounds) her teammates picked her up.

Before the game, Aces coach Becky Hammon said she wasn’t worried about Loyd contributing to the team. As usual, she was right as Loyd proved yet again the critical moments are not too big for her.

“The whole game they told me to keep shooting,” said Loyd, who was just 2 of 9 from the field, 2 of 7 from long distance. “So I shot it and it went in.”

For Las Vegas, which is 2-1, it has been a mixed bag so far. The Aces got hammered in Brooklyn by the Liberty, bounced back by routing Connecticut, then squeaked by a Washington team which was missing three players due to injury and whose roster is comprised of four rookies and three additional players with two or fewer years of pro experience.

In time, the Mystics will learn to win games like Friday’s. They’ll figure out how to close out games and leave the court in jubilation rather than the empty feeling with they departed MUA.

“They have a young core that plays well on both sides of the ball,” said Aces guard Chelsea Gray, who had 17 points. “But everybody was just steady. That’s a gutsy win.”

And while Hammon will take it, she knows her team needs to start faster and not wait until it’s on the brink to get going.

“Our offense looked unorganized,” she said. “It looked dysfunctional. It wasn’t us.

“You’ve got to move, pass and cut. We were fortunate to win this game. They gave us all we can handle.”

That the Aces found a way to pull this one out of the fire shows they still have a future of winning in their locker room and on the floor. Kelsey Plum may be in Los Angeles but the rest of the core — Wilson, Gray and Young along with Kia Stokes — is still intact. And when you throw a veteran like Loyd into the mix, it enables you to win games you have no business winning.