Stingy WNBA defenses are clamping down on the league’s best scorers with one exception: A’ja Wilson

A’ja Wilson has authored some of the biggest scoring nights the WNBA has seen this season, and throughout her career. But the 28 points she scored against Golden State in May became a measuring stick.

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“We needed this one,” Wilson said. “This was going to be a good test.”

The Valkyries not only own the league’s best defensive rating, they’re also one of the toughest teams in the WNBA to score against. They simply don’t allow opponents to have big individual scoring nights very often.

The Aces needed every bucket Wilson scored to secure a 91-81 road win.

“We wanted to give the people a good showing,” Wilson said. “I feel like every time we come here, it’s not really a good showing when it comes to our side. So we wanted to make sure we played basketball the right way and come out with the energy [we] needed.”

Wilson’s 28-point performance remains one of the best any opponent has managed against the Valkyries this season. She’s one of four players to crack 25 points against Golden State, joining Olivia Miles (28), Jackie Young (27), and Natisha Hiedeman (26).

Getting buckets is hard enough. Doing it against the league’s stingiest defenses is another challenge altogether.

The league’s best scorers don’t all handle that challenge the same way.

Wilson, for instance, leads the league at 25.6 points per game and still averages 23.8 against top five defenses.

Others see a much steeper drop-off.

Before suffering a lower leg injury expected to sideline her for four weeks, Kelsey Plum of the Sparks averaged 23.9 points per game overall but just 18.0 against top-five defenses.

Tempo guard Brittney Sykes, who has been out since June 16 with a plantar fascia injury, averaged 20.1 points per game overall but only 12.8 against top-five defenses.

There are defenses across the league that take pride in clamping down on stars, but the Valkyries and Dream are the only teams not to allow a 30-point scorer this season.

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The Dream made life miserable for Wings star Paige Bueckers in May, holding her to 7 points on 3-for-12 shooting in 31 minutes.

The Tempo’s Marina Mabrey, who is averaging 21.0 points on 44.4 percent shooting, went through the same wringer in June, shooting 2 for 11 during a 9-point night.

No one has scored more than 26 points against the Dream this season. Mabrey bounced back with a 26-point performance last week. Fever stars Caitlin Clark and Kelsey Mitchell each scored 26 on June 18, then Clark matched that total again two nights later.

Elite scorers are going to get their points. The league’s best defenses simply make them work much harder to do it.

1. Kayla McBride, Lynx: Back-to-back 24-point performances in wins against the Sparks and the Fire, followed by a 33-point explosion in a win over the Storm, helped the Lynx keep rolling at 21-6. Her 18.1 points per game is just shy of the career high (18.2) she set with the Aces in 2018.

2. Shakira Austin, Mystics: She’s been a walking double-double all season and recorded back-to-back double-doubles against the Valkyries, first with 18 points and 16 rebounds in a loss, then with 15 points and 15 boards in a bounce-back win.

3. Caitlin Clark, Fever: Clark posted the first 45-point, 10-assist double-double in WNBA history, and it was fueled by her best 3-point shooting night in more than a year. She knocked down 6 of 10 from deep, the first time she’d made at least five 3-pointers while shooting 50 percent or better from beyond the arc since last June.

WNBA All-Star Game, Team Coop vs. Team Spoon, Saturday, 8:30 p.m.: Clark, Wilson, Miles, Aliyah Boston, and Jessica Shepard will lead the way for Teresa Weatherspoon’s squad, while Paige Bueckers, Breanna Stewart, Kelsey Mitchell, Natasha Howard, and Gabby Williams headline Cynthia Cooper’s team.

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