The Las Vegas Aces will have a new look when they play Sunday afternoon against the host New York Liberty.
The Aces will be playing for the third time in four days.
“There’s going to be some rotation things,” Las Vegas coach Becky Hammon said on Saturday. “It’s just too many minutes on our players. I’ll meet with my staff and discuss how that’s going to look.”
According to the WNBA’s injury report Sunday morning, here’s how they decided it will look: A’ja Wilson, Chelsea Gray and Jackie Young will sit out for “rest.” That means Las Vegas will play without its top three scorers.
Wilson leads the league in scoring (26.3 points per game) and blocks (2.0) and ranks third in rebounds (9.7). Young (18.1 points) ranks fifth in assists (6.7) while Gray (12.6 points) stands fourth in assists (7.1).
The Aces (22-10) have played twice since New York’ has played. Las Vegas won Thursday night in overtime at Indiana and then fell 98-87 on Saturday afternoon at Minnesota despite Young’s 23 points.
Hammon said Saturday was one of the Aces’ poorest games of the year in terms of defensive execution.
“We’ve got to learn off paper and off film because there’s no time to practice,” she said. “There’s no space to practice because you’re traveling all the time. So we have to be quick learners.”
The Liberty (19-13) have won three consecutive games, including the past two at home against the Seattle Storm. The most recent of those games was a 92-86 victory on Wednesday as Breanna Stewart racked up 28 points to lead New York in scoring for the fourth time in a five-game stretch.
“I think this lineup is just getting really comfortable with one another,” said Stewart, who’s tied for third in WNBA scoring at 21.6 points per game. “… I just feel like the flow of the game is at a really great place right now.”
A recent trend for New York has been seeing some of its leads dwindle, but the Liberty have reacted well in those situations.
“We have to be able to respond, and we have,” Liberty coach Chris DeMarco said.
Wilson was held to 16 points Saturday in an output that matched her season low. She shot an uncharacteristic 5-for-17 from the field.
“I thought they dared us to pass and we just didn’t pass the ball well enough,” Hammon said. “… I would describe it as swarm ball, and we didn’t do a good enough job of handling it.”
Las Vegas has lost consecutive games only once this season, falling to Los Angeles and Dallas in May.
The Liberty and Aces have split two games, with New York winning 87-76 on the road June 23 and Las Vegas claiming a 104-99 triumph on the same court July 30 with Wilson pouring in 33 points.
–Field Level Media
