The champs are back in business, and MVP front runner A’ja Wilson is spearheading the entire operation.
Wilson played liked she was possessed, registering 24 points, and cleaned up the glass with 20 rebounds. She also filled up other areas of the stat sheet with four blocks, three steals and two assists Wednesday to lead the Las Vegas Aces in an 84-79 win over the Seattle Storm. The dominating effort for Wilson marks the first 20/20 game in her six-year career that already has her Hall of Fame bound, which includes five All-Star honors, two MVPs and two Defensive Player of the Year awards. Her rebounding mark is a career best.
The victory was the eighth in nine games for the once-struggling Aces, who got off to a 6-6 start (.500) in defense of their second straight WNBA title. With Wednesday’s win, the Aces improved to 14-7 and moved a half-game in front of the Storm for second place in the Western Conference.
It was the 21st 20-20 game in the 28-year history of the WNBA. Wilson’s is the second in Aces franchise history, following Natalie Williams (Utah Starzz, 2001).
Wilson said, “I feel like that’s the side I take personal, the defensive side.
“It’s crazy, if you would have asked me my rookie year, it was like, ‘What’s defense? I’m never playing it.’ But I learned defense wins games and championships for you. I really have to be that locked in.”
Embed from Getty ImagesWilson joined some elite company, Sylvia Fowles of the Minnesota Lynx (2021) as the only players in WNBA history with games of 20 points, 20 rebounds, 3-plus steals and 3-plus blocks. Ironically, both games came against the Storm.
The Aces now find themselves back in the thick of things, only 1.5 games behind the first-place Minnesota Lynx and very much back in the conversation among the favorites to win the WNBA championship. The Aces are one of a handful of teams (Lynx, Storm, New York Liberty, Connecticut Sun) with a .636 or better win rate that project to contend for the title.
The Storm jumped out to an early lead in Wednesday’s matinee with a 17-13 first-quarter that they extended to a six-point lead, 36-30, by halftime. But the third quarter was when the Aces went wild. Punctuated by a 9-0 surge by Jackie Young, they turned a 41-34 deficit into a 54-45 lead late in the third. The Aces outscored Seattle 30-19 in the quarter and never looked back.
The Storm never gave up and made it a two-possession game, cutting the deficit to 80-76 in the final minute. Wilson responded by knocking down a contested turnaround jumper from the free-throw line while draped by six-time All-Defensive Team selection Nneka Ogwumike.
Jewell Lloyd sank three free throws on the other end after being fouled on a 3-point shot to trim the Aces’ lead to 82-79 with 45.1 seconds left on the clock. But the Storm failed to score another point as the Aces held on for the road win.
Wilson is second in the WNBA in rebounding (11.3 RPG) to Chicago Sky rookie Angel Reese (11.9), so she is used to big numbers in the rebounding department, but not quite to this extent.
“Getting 20 rebounds? My shot wasn’t going so I was like, ‘I’ve got to do something out here. I didn’t travel to Seattle for just cardio,'” Wilson joked. “So, it turned out to be rebounds.”
Before the game on Wednesday, it was announced that Wilson will be featured and grace as the WNBA cover athlete of the NBA 2K25 video game to be released in September.
