Although things have gone a bit awry for the Las Vegas Aces lately, Thursday’s home showdown against the struggling Connecticut Sun offers the defending champions a prime opportunity to get back on track.
Coach Becky Hammon was ejected in the second quarter of the Aces’ 97-82 loss to the Atlanta Dream on Tuesday, the team’s second consecutive setback and fourth in six games.
The recent skid has seen the Aces (24-13) fall from second to fourth in the league standings despite A’ja Wilson and Jackie Young’s typical consistency, largely because their supporting cast hasn’t lived up to the part.
To further demonstrate how reliant the Aces have been on Wilson and Young, the only game since July 3 in which neither of them led the team in scoring was one in which neither of them played.
In total, Wilson or Young have led the Aces in scoring in 31 of the team’s 37 games, and it doesn’t appear likely they’ll get much help in that department down the stretch.
“Our effort wasn’t there today,” Wilson said. “And that’s upsetting because that’s one thing that you don’t really teach. You don’t really scout. You can’t really learn it. You just have to want it. That team was coming off of a crushing loss and they just wanted it more. Same for us. And we just didn’t have it. We didn’t want it.
“So, I think that’s something that we’ve got to dial into the locker room and I’ll take obviously full responsibility for that because I can’t have my team come out and not show the effort and the want-to factor that is needed, especially during this time of the season.”
The Connecticut Sun (9-25), on the other hand, have struggled for the duration of the season. Despite that, they enter Thursday’s game with some rare momentum after defeating the Los Angeles Sparks 85-77 on Tuesday.
Olivia Nelson-Odoba led the charge with an 18-point, 11-rebound double-double, making 7 of 11 attempts from the field and 4 of 4 attempts from the free-throw line.
The Sun had 23 assists in the win, which was the telling stat in coach Rachid Meziane’s eyes.
“I do think that this win is very important for us, just to keep the team on track,” Meziane said. “Every time there are some areas of improvement. We lost too much ball tonight. That’s something that we have to fix. But I am proud of the team because we had 23 assists tonight. It means that we shared the ball and we played how we love to play and how we like to play.”
The Aces and Sun faced off in consecutive games at Connecticut on May 13 and 15, with the Aces winning the first game 98-69 and the second 101-94. A’ja Wilson set her season-high in scoring in the second meeting, tallying 45 points on 15-of-18 shooting while making all 13 attempts from the free-throw line.
Aneesha Morrow, who led the Sun in scoring in the first meeting, was traded to the Toronto Tempo on July 31.
–Field Level Media
