GAME PREVIEW: Aces at Dream (8/7)

ATLANTA, GA (August 7, 2018)—Despite two straight losses, and the team’s recent travel woes, Las Vegas is still in the hunt for the eight seed in the WNBA’s postseason tournament. The Aces trail Dallas by one-and-a-half-games for that final playoff berth, but the Wings own the tiebreaker against Las Vegas. Dallas is idle today, while the Aces take on the second-place Atlanta Dream at 4 pm PT.

W L Pct GB
Seattle – X 22 7 .759
Atlanta 18 10 .643 3.5
Los Angeles 17 11 .607 4.5
Washington 16 11 .593 5.0
Connecticut 16 12 .571 5.5
Phoenix 16 13 .552 6.0
Minnesota 15 13 .536 6.5
Dallas 14 14 .500 7.5
Las Vegas 12 15 .444 9.0
Chicago 10 18 .357 11.5
New York – O 7 21 .250 14.5
Indiana – O 5 23 .179 16.5
X – clinched playoffs O – eliminated from playoffs

 

The Aces have six games remaining on their schedule—three at home, and three on the road. Four of those games are against teams ahead of them in the standings.

Date Opponent W L
August 7 at Atlanta 18 10
August 9 vs. Minnesota 15 13
August 11 vs. Indiana 5 23
August 15 vs. New York 7 21
August 17 at Dallas 14 14
August 19 vs. Atlanta 18 10

 

After starting the year by losing seven of their first eight games, the Aces won 11 of their next 17 to improve to 12-13. The team’s last win came on July 22, just before the All-Star Break. During that hot streak, Las Vegas improved on both sides of the basketball.\

Offense Defense
FG% 3G% TOs PPG ORPct OER 3G% PPG DRPct DER
1-7 start .409 .286 14.9 78.9 .227 92.0 .384 88.6 .738 106.1
11-6 after .448 .385 12.6 84.9 .268 102.7 .318 82.6 .778 100.3

 

Since returning from the All-Star Break, however, Las Vegas’ defense has been its Achilles heel. After holding opponents to 82.6 points per game over its previous 17 games, the Aces allowed Phoenix (104 points) and Connecticut (109 points) to top the century mark. The 109 points scored by the Sun are the most the Aces have allowed in their 22-year franchise history. Phoenix and Connecticut also combined to make 55.7 percent of their shots from the field, and 41.7 percent from long distance during those two games.

The Dream were in eighth place as recently as July 10, but after beginning 2018 with an 8-9 mark, Atlanta has ripped off 10 wins in its last 11 contests, and can clinch a playoff berth Tuesday with a win over the Aces.

Dream guard Tiffany Hayes is coming off of her third Eastern Conference Player of the Week award of the season The UConn grad averaged 21.7 points on the week, while connecting on 53.3 percent of her shots from the field, including 10 of 21 from long distance. Hayes was also the WNBA Eastern Conference Player of the Month for July after leading Atlanta to a 9-2 mark during that 31-day stretch.

The Aces and Dream have met just once this season, back on Friday, June 8. Atlanta eked out an 87-83 victory at Mandalay Bay Events Center behind 24 points from Hayes, and 23 from Angel McCoughtry. A’ja Wilson led Las Vegas with 20 points, while four other members of the team reached double figures. The Aces and Dream also square off against one another on the final game of the regular season, August 19, in Las Vegas,