INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (Sept. 10, 2024)—The Las Vegas Aces are in the middle of their 4-game, east coast road swing having split the first 2 games of the trip. The final 2 games are both in Indianapolis as they take on the Fever on Wednesday, Sept. 11, at 4 pm PT, and Friday, Sept. 13 at 4:30 pm. Wednesday’s game is being broadcast locally on Fox5 and the Silver State Sports & Entertainment Network, while Friday’s is being televised nationally on ION.

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The Aces were without the services of A’ja Wilson Sunday, but they still nearly pulled off the upset of front-running New York, eventually falling 75-71 (recap/box score). That loss dropped Las Vegas 3.0 games behind Connecticut in the race for third place in the WNBA standings. Seattle is just a game back of the Aces in fifth, but Las Vegas owns the tiebreaker at the moment, having won 2 of the 3 meetings with the Storm. The teams conclude their regular season series in Seattle on Sept. 17.

 

 

The Indiana Fever began the season with the youngest team in the league, and one of the toughest schedules, playing 11 games in the first 20 days. Despite the drafting of Caitlin Clark with the No. 1 overall pick, growing pains were to be expected, and they stumbled out of the gates to a 2-9 record.

They had the second least efficient offense in the WNBA (94.9 OER), and the least efficient defense during that stretch (111.8 DER), but they began turning things around during the middle of the season winning 9 of their next 15 games to push themselves into playoff contention. Since the Olympic break, Indiana’s offense has been the best in the league (110.4 OER). Their defense is still their Achilles’ heel, particularly on the perimeter, but it has improved by more than 7 points per 100 possessions over the team’s first 11 games.

 

The Fever’s surge in the standings has been fueled by their big three of Clark, Kelsey Mitchell and Aliyah Boston, all of whom have improved considerably on the offensive end of the floor throughout the season.

 

 

Mitchell in particular is channeling her inner All-Star as her 24.9 points per game since the resumption of the season are second only to …

A’ja Wilson (27.3 ppg), who continues to shatter records this season, despite being listed as questionable heading into Wednesday’s game. The 2-time M’VP has a few more records in her sights that should come tumbling down over Las Vegas’ remaining games. Her 929 points scored this year are just 10 behind Jewell Loyd’s WNBA record of 939 from the 2023 season.

On Friday evening, the six-time All-Star broke the league record for “stocks” in a season, besting Brittney Griner’s mark of 151 combined STeals and blOCKS in 2014. Wilson now has has 64 steals and 91 blocks for a total of 155 “stocks” on the year.

The 6-time All-Star is averaging 27.3 points per game on the season, which is 2 points per game better than the record 25.3 that Diana Taurasi averaged in 2006.

The South Carolina grad is also likely to become just the third player in WNBA history to block 100 or more shots in a season, joining Brittney Griner (3 times) and Margo Dydek (4 times).

Already this season, Wilson has set or tied WNBA records for …

Consecutive games scoring 20 or more points with 20 straight from August 28, 2023, to June 27, 2024

Consecutive games scoring 25 or more points with 8 straight from May 25 to June 13, 2024

Consecutive games scoring 30 or more points with 4 straight from September 2, 2023, to May 14, 2024

Consecutive games with at least 20 points and 10 rebounds with 8 straight from July 5 to August 18, 2024

On Sept. 1 at Phoenix, Wilson tied the WNBA record for most 40-point games in a career with 4 (Diana Taurasi, Breanna Stewart).

Out of all the players in WNBA history to average at least 20 points per game, Wilson’s 12.0 rebounds per game are the highest in league history, as are her 2.68 blocks per game.

Wilson’s 10.2 win shares are also far and away the most in the league—2.5 more than second place Breanna Stewart of New York and 3.7 more than Minnesota’s Napheesa Collier. To put that in perspective, Wilson’s season is approximately a Jewell Loyd (3.8)  better than Collier’s this year, and a Rhyne Howard (2.5)  better than Stewart’s.

Oh, and she is doing all of this while leading the WNBA in lowest turnover percentage, committing a miscue on just 5.6 percent of the possessions she impacts. In fact, here’s a trivia question for you. Can you name all the players in the history of the WNBA who have averaged at least 20 points per game in a season, while also making 50 percent or more of their field goal attempts, and committing fewer than 1.5 turnovers per game? The complete list is here.

Sorry. We got off on a bit of an A’ja Wilson tangent there.

Leading Sixth Player of the Year candidate Tiffany Hayes, who signed as a free agent with Las Vegas on May 31, has been the Aces second-most efficient offensive player of late. Over the last 13 games, she is averaging 11.3 points per game, while shooting 58.0 percent from the field and 45.7 percent from 3-point range. For the season she now ranks 8th in the league in field goal percentage at 51.4 percent and 17th in 3-point field goal percentage at 37.1 percent.

Kelsey Plum (10th, 18.1 ppg) and Jackie Young 16th, (16.2 ppg) are also both ranked in the top 20 in the league in scoring. Plum’s 92 made 3s are tied for the 3rd most in the W this year, and she is on pace to become just the 3rd player in league history to make 100 or more 3s in multiple seasons (Taurasi, Arike Ogunbowale). In addition to her scoring, Young ranks 7th in the league in assists at 5.3 per game after tying the franchise record when she dished out 14 dimes at Phoenix on September 1.

The Aces won their first 2 games against the Fever this season, both coming at home—99-80 on May 25 at Michelob ULTRA Arena (box score), and 88-69 on July 2 in front of the largest crowd in the WNBA since 1999 at T-Mobile Arena (box score).