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By LVSportsBiz.com Staff With Photos by Hugh Byrne
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Who wants to play the Las Vegas Aces in the WNBA playoffs?
If the rest of the W was honest, nobody.
The Aces will not finish with the WNBA’s best record and number one seed, but the team with championship rings from 2022 and 2023 defeated the top-rated Minnesota Lynx, 97-87, at T-Mobile Arena Thursday evening while reeling off its 13th straight win.
The Aces’ common denominator since a 14-14 record after 28 games has been clutch play in the fourth quarter to close out wins, while playing with an increased physical edge.
The Aces had a four-point lead after three quarters and outscored the Lynx, 27-21, in the fourth quarter to wrap up the win. The Aces converted 55 percent of its shot attempts for the game.
Las Vegas’ A’ja Wilson is playing at an MVP level, NaLyssa Smith acquired in a trade is a big body near the basket to help Wilson and Jackie Young is providing steady points as a reliable second scoring option.
On Aug. 2, Minnesota wiped out Las Vegas, 111-58. Las Vegas has not lost since.
The game not only had a playoff game feel before the announced crowd of 14,656, there was the game-within-a-game as MVP candidates Napheesa Collier of Minnesota and Las Vegas’ Wilson battled with some observers believing the player with the stronger game would have an inside track to garnering the MVP award.
Wilson scored 31 points (12 for 15 from the floor) in 35 minutes, while Collier registered 12 points in 30 minutes.
Young scored 20, Chelsea Gray added 13 and Smith chipped in with 10.
The Aces’ 27-14 record is tied with Atlanta and Phoenix, but Las Vegas has the tie-breaker over both teams. So if Las Vegas wins out with two games against Chicago and then LA in the season final, the Aces will wrap up the number two seed behind Minnesota.
Who knows? We may have seen a preview of the WNBA Final in Las Vegas tonight.
“We took care of business,” James Papa Gray, Chelsea’s dad, said after the game on the radio’s postgame show. “These players are on a mission.”
PSA
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