LAS VEGAS (Sept. 18, 2024)—With one game remaining in the regular season, the Las Vegas Aces are set to host the first two games of the First Round of the 2024 WNBA Playoffs which begin Sunday, Sept. 22, at Michelob ULTRA Arena. Still unknown, however, is if the Aces will finish as the 3 or 4 seed, and if they will play Indiana or Seattle.
The complete postseason picture will clear up Thursday evening as all 12 teams are in action. Las Vegas (26-13) hosts the Dallas Wings (9-30) at MUA beginning at 7 pm PT. The game is being broadcast locally on the Silver State Sports & Entertainment Network.
An Aces win over the Wings, coupled with a Connecticut loss to Chicago, would vault Las Vegas into the 3 seed, and they would host the Fever in the First Round. An Aces loss, or a Sun win would keep Las Vegas in 4th and they would host the Storm.
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The Dallas Wings were eliminated from playoff contention just over a week ago, following a disappointing 2024 that was awash with injuries. They entered the offseason with high hopes after posting a 22-18 record a year ago. The Wings returned 6 of their 7 top scorers from 2023, but adversity came calling well before the start of training camp. Last year’s Most Improved Player Award winner Satou Sabally suffered a shoulder injury during the Olympic qualifying tournament in February and would miss the first half of the 2024 campaign.
The Wings won 3 of their first 5 contests, but subsequent injuries to Natasha Howard (broken foot, missed 13 games) and Maddy Siegrist (broken finger, 13 games) were too much for Dallas to overcome. They lost 11 straight at one point during the year, and bring an 8-game losing with them in the regular season finale.
The 2023 version of the Wings boasted the 3rd most efficient offense in the league (106.9 OER) but the 8th most efficient defense (103.5 DER). Those rankings have dropped to 5th (102.2 OER) and 12th (111.5 DER) in 2024.
Particularly problematic is the fact that opponents are connecting on 53.0 percent of their 2-point field goal attempts, and 47.5 percent of their overall field goal attempts. Dallas is the second best offensive rebounding team in the league (.349 OReb%), but the 3rd worst defensive rebounding team (.685 DReb%).
Arike Ogunbowale (22.2 ppg) is 2nd in the WNBA, and leads the Wings in scoring as she has done in each of her previous 5 seasons in the W. Upon her return, Sabally picked up where her 2023 season left off, and is averaging 17.4 points, 6.4 rebounds and 4.9 assists, while knocking down 43.6 percent of her shots from distance.
Howard (17.8 ppg) and Teaira McCowan (11.7 ppg) give Dallas 2 additional double-digit scorers, but McCowan is suspended for Thursday’s game, having been whistled for 7 technical fouls on the year. Under WNBA rules, a player or coach is automatically suspended without pay for one game upon receiving a seventh technical foul during the regular season. McCowan’s unlucky seventh came with 1.9 seconds remaining in the 4th quarter of Sunday’s game against Indiana.
Las Vegas is 8-1 over its last 9 games, and that hot streak has been powered mostly by the team’s defense. The Aces have held each of their last 9 opponents below 80 points for a league-low average of 72.9 points per game during that stretch. The opposition is also connecting on just 29.6 percent of its shots from 3-point range over the last 9 contests.
M’VP front-runner A’ja Wilson etched her name in the record books for the umpteenth time this season as last week she broke the WNBA single-season scoring record,
Diana Taurasi’s nearly 2-decades-old single-season scoring average of 25.3 points per game has officially fallen. Wilson in 38 games posted an average of 26.9 points per game and if she does play, she’ll still best DT’s record.
Already this season, Wilson has set or tied WNBA records for …
Consecutive games scoring 20 or more points with 20 straight from Aug. 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 Sept. 2, 2023, to May 14, 2024
Consecutive games with at least 20 points and 10 rebounds with 8 straight from July 5 to Aug. 18, 2024
Wilson has also broken the WNBA record for win shares in a season with 10.9. Heading into the final night of W games, even if she doesn’t play, Wilson is—2.3 more than second place Breanna Stewart of New York (8.6) and 3.5 more than Minnesota’s Napheesa Collier (7.4). To put that in perspective, Wilson’s season is a Jewell Loyd (3.5) better than Collier’s this year, and more than a Dianna Taurasi (2.1) better than Stewart’s.
And she did all of this while leading the WNBA in lowest turnover percentage, committing a miscue on just 5.3 percent of the possessions she impacts—the 4th lowest percentage in league history.
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 17 games, she is averaging 10.6 points per game, while shooting 54.5 percent from the field and 48.8 percent from 3-point range. For the season she now ranks 14th in the league in field goal percentage at 50.0 percent and 11th in 3-point field goal percentage at 39.5 percent.
Kelsey Plum (11th, 17.8 ppg) and Jackie Young 16th, (15.8 ppg) are also both ranked in the top 20 in the league in scoring. Plum’s 110 made 3s are the 3rd most in the W this year, and she recently became one of just 5 players in league history to make 100 or more 3s in multiple seasons (Taurasi, Arike Ogunbowale, Kelsey Mitchell, Sabrina Ionescu). In addition to her scoring, Young ranks 7th in the league in assists at 5.3 per game.