LAS VEGAS – It took over a quarter of the schedule, but it finally feels like the Aces’ season has some life to it after Sunday’s 89-81 win against the Indiana Fever.
Becky Hammon’s group remains a game under .500 at 6-7, but they should move to 8-7 after an upcoming back-to-back against two prospective lottery teams in the Connecticut Sun and Washington Mystics. The team will then embark on a nearly two-week-long four-game road trip that will see them rematch against the Fever and the defending champion New York Liberty, who trounced the Aces 92-79 in the season opener.
Vegas' ability to respond in the second half against a sure playoff team on Sunday was the first sign of moxie the team has shown all year. The Aces have a long way to go before being considered legitimate title contenders again, but Sunday’s performance at least gave some hope that it could still be possible.
The Aces’ second-half response was personified by the team’s best player and emotional leader. A’ja Wilson played arguably the worst first half of her career, scoring just four points on 6-of-13 shooting. She then responded like a three-time MVP should in the second half, scoring 18 points on 6-of-8 shooting to lead the Aces over the Fever in a game that drew the third-largest television audience ever for a regular season WNBA game on ESPN.
The three-time MVP has arguably had her most trying start to a season since entering the league in 2018, though you wouldn’t be able to tell by looking at the stat sheet. Wilson is still the Aces’ leading scorer (21.1 points per game) and rebounder (9.8 rebounds per game) and she also leads the team in steals and blocks. Before her three-game absence with a concussion, Wilson also led the team in assists.
On the other side of that same coin, Wilson also recently had her first stretch since May 2022 in which she scored less than 20 points in four out of five games. The Aces need Wilson at her best, as they’re just 2-3 when Wilson scores less than 20 points. Considering the fact that Vegas went 1-2 in her absence, with the lone win coming against a league-worst Dallas squad in nail-biting fashion, it’s clear that Wilson is still the end-all be-all for this franchise that features three fellow Olympic 5-on-5 gold medalists.
Perhaps the most damning statistic for the Aces to this point is the fact that Chelsea Gray is only averaging 3.8 assists per game. Gray averaged 7.3 assists per game in her last full season in 2023, and she hasn’t averaged fewer than 4.5 assists per game across an entire season since her second season in the WNBA in 2016. Gray did eclipse her season high in assists in back-to-back games against the Lynx and the Storm last week, so the hope is that she'll get those averages up to a proper "Point Gawd" level in the coming weeks.
The biggest thing holding Vegas back from being a legitimate contender this season is its complete lack of a bench unit. The Aces’ 16.2 bench points rank 12th in the WNBA, only ahead of the 4-10 Los Angeles Sparks. They’ve been held to fewer than 20 bench points in each of their last six games and in 10 of their 13 games this season overall. In addition, the Aces' three total bench points against the Sparks on June 15 rank as the sixth-fewest in the league in a single game this season.
If Gray continues to turn the corner and the Aces get serious about adding a legitimate role player who can take them out of the league's basement in bench scoring, they'll find themselves back in a position where they're a nightmare playoff matchup for any team besides the New York Liberty. For now, it appears they'll at least have enough to secure a top-six playoff seed, which will prevent them from meeting New York or Minnesota in the first round.
The Aces tip off their back-to-back against Connecticut at 7 p.m. on Wednesday night at Michelob Ultra Arena, with the game being broadcast nationally on NBATV. Thursday’s game against Washington also tips off at 7 pm and will be available for live streaming on Prime Video.