LAS VEGAS – A’ja Wilson just had that look in her eyes.
In fact, oftentimes it felt like there was nothing behind her eyes. She was all business. Minimal emotion. She clapped a couple of times and punched the air once — just to remind everybody whose house they’re in. But nobody needed reminding.
Wilson bottled up the tough Game 2 loss to the Indiana Fever on Tuesday and moved on. Unlucky for the visitors, A’ja moving on was not good news.
The four-time MVP bounced back with fervor, producing a dominant 36-point, 10-rebound double-double in the Aces’ gutsy 94-83 win-or-go-home Game 3 victory over the Fever Thursday night — punching the defending champions’ ticket into their eighth consecutive WNBA playoff semifinal.
“I have my days, I have my moments, because I’m human,” Wilson said. “But after a while I understood that I didn’t want [the fan altercation in Game 2] to be a distraction, to myself or to my team, and I knew what we had to do coming into tonight.”
Playing without late-scratch Stephanie Talbot (leg) and Dana Evans (knee), Wilson wasn’t the only one who had a little extra on her plate tonight. However, she set the tone.
A’ja went a perfect 5-for-5 from the field in the first quarter, en route to 14 points. Caitlin Clark and the Fever kept pace, though. Clark scored 11 (4-7 FG), keeping the game tied at 31-31 through one.
The early stages suggested this game would be an all-out war, and it was. In the end, however, the ones who have won many deadly battles before prevailed once again.
Wilson added two blocks to her tally. Her forever running mates, Jackie Young and Chelsea Gray, played 40 minutes apiece, delivering 18 and 23 points, respectively.
Young flirted with a triple-double (eight rebounds, seven assists). Gray, 33, has nothing left to prove, but she didn’t mind showing the world what she’s all about again in the fourth quarter. She made clutch bucket after clutch bucket, producing 11 of her points. She chipped in five assists.
“I don’t think I’ve played [Young and Gray] 40 minutes since I’ve been here,” head coach Becky Hammon said. “I tried to use timeouts for rest, but it’s just next woman up.”
Unexpectedly losing key defender in Talbot last minute was a huge blow. But when times get rough, Hammon knows that she can always count on her star trio to go do what she always expects them to do. They combined for 77 points in this one.
“I needed them to go be the big three that I’ve always known them to be,” she added. “And they deliver in big moments. … They’re champions, and that’s a spirit they carry with them. … If I’m looking across a line, I want to pick those three every time. … I’m proud of the group as a whole, but they’re called the big three for a reason. And I had to ride them tonight.”
The Fever never backed down. But there were moments throughout the game where it felt like perhaps the moment was getting a little big for them. The throne is difficult to get to and even more difficult to stay at. The Aces have proven the ability to do both, over and over.
That experience showed. The Aces couldn’t relax right until the very end. But they closed the game out in true championship fashion. Hammon said on Tuesday that they would lean heavily on their pedigree tonight, and that they did.
The hosts took a narrow 70-65 lead into the fourth quarter — where they have been underwhelming most of the season — and they answered the bell when they really needed to, outscoring the Fever 24-18 down the stretch to hold on to the win.
Clark (18) and Kelsey Mitchell (23) were nearly impossible to contain in Game 2. The Aces, despite being shorthanded, were able to turn off the faucet on the dynamic duo at the perfect time.
Fever’s backcourt combined for a respectable 41 points, but they were inefficient. They shot a combined 13-for-41 from the field and, more importantly, 6-for-23 from three-point range. Aliyah Boston added 19 points and 10 rebounds, but it was not enough to get over the Aces-shaped hump for a second year running.
Veteran Jewell Loyd earned the spot start in Talbot’s place for Las Vegas, and although she was held scoreless in the second half, her 11 first-half points gave the Aces the juice they needed in key moments.
Loyd made three timely triples (3-6 3PT) and, more crucially for Hammon, held up defensively, having to replace an important contributor on that end of the floor. Talbot drew the Clark assignment in games one and two.
Hammon said that knowing who Talbot has to guard, she would only play if she was 100 percent. Loyd ensured that the drop-off in quality on that end of the floor was hardly noticeable. She’s not new to this stage either, though the beginning did look a little shaky.
“She’s Jewell Loyd. She has been in big games. She’s a champion,” Hammon said. “Even before [Talbot] went out, she was one of those primary defenders on [Clark]. So, she kind of just assumed her natural assignment. … After that first quarter, I thought it was going to be a long night. But we settled in, buckled in, and had a really great response — especially defensively.”
The Aces’ defense made the league’s best regular-season offense in the Fever really uncomfortable, limiting them to just a 38.5 percent clip from the field and 28.1 percent from beyond the arc. Conversely, Vegas shot 45.3 percent from the field, 40 percent from three, and converted 28 of its 35 free throw attempts.
With her double-double, Wilson passed Tamika Catchings and Candace Parker for second-most in playoff history (28).
The likely soon-to-be five-time MVP, A’ja is averaging 32 points, 11.7 rebounds, two blocks, and 1.7 steals across the first three playoff games. She’s shooting eye-popping 64.6 percent from the field and 66.7 percent from three — the latter development being a lethal weapon, making her virtually impossible to guard. She knocked down two of her three attempts from deep to close out Indiana (11-18 FG, 12-15 FT).
“Regular season is cute, it’s so cute, everyone can come see us,” she said in her post-game interview with the USA Network broadcast. “But this is the moment that we live for. So, for us to show up in these spaces and lean on each other and show resilience, that’s something that you never get tired of.”
And speaking of tiredness, Hammon is emphasizing rest and getting healthy in the upcoming days as the Aces now await their next opponent — the winner of Friday’s Game 3 between the Golden State Valkyries and the Dallas Wings.
Game 1 of the semifinals is set for Sunday. Should the Valkyries win, the No. 3 seed Aces will be traveling to San Francisco this weekend. If the Wings pull off the upset, the Aces would host the opening two games of the semis and own home-court advantage for the remainder of the postseason.
But whoever it ends up being, the back-to-back and back again champions will be feeling really good about themselves after seeing off one of their fellow title favorites.
