Schedule makers didn’t do Sun any favors with an early double dose of A’ja Wilson, Aces
Seeing the reigning MVP A’ja Wilson and the defending champion Las Vegas Aces once — at any point in the season — is enough for most teams.
Read more The fight on Beacon Hill over the legislative audit is a messy one. Here’s what to know.
But facing them in consecutive games over a three-night stretch just four games into the year — especially for a young Connecticut Sun team still trying to find some chemistry — is a different challenge entirely.
Wilson put up a 22-point, 11-rebound double-double in 22 minutes in a 98-69 win, then got ready to do it all over again two days later. Even if the schedule ensured that Vegas only had to make the trip to Connecticut once this season, Wilson acknowledged that stretches like the one in Connecticut aren’t the easiest.
“It’s easy to play on some big nights,” Wilson said. “But it’s the ones like this where it’s a Wednesday, it’s hard to get up for these types of games sometimes. So we really had to dig deep.”
Dropping 45 points on the Sun and shooting as close to flawlessly as possible — 15 of 18 from the field, 2 of 2 from 3-point range, and 13 of 13 from the free throw line — was one way to do it. It was the second-biggest scoring night of Wilson’s career and the eighth-highest single-game scoring performance in WNBA history.
“It’s hard to beat a team two times in a row, especially this close together,” Aces coach Becky Hammon said.
Since the two-game miniseries became a commonplace post-COVID scheduling quirk, it has created a repeat-opponent test; Vegas is built for it, while Connecticut is trying to survive it.
No team has won more series than the Aces, who have done it 13 times, tied with New York Liberty and Minnesota Lynx for the most series sweeps in the league.
The Sun, typically, have been one of those teams that is hard to beat twice. In 23 series, they’ve swept 10, split nine, and been swept four times.
The back-to-backs have been tougher on teams like the Indiana Fever, who have played 22 series, been swept 18 times, split four times, and have yet to sweep one.
Wilson’s scoring explosion didn’t surprise Sun second-year guard Saniya Rivers.
“A’ja is A’ja,” Rivers said. “So it’s going to be hard to slow her down, especially on a night like this.”
But for a player who already has a career’s worth of monster nights, some of her biggest have come when she’s had a chance to see the same team twice.
Last year, she had a modest 14-point night in a blowout win over the Golden State Valkyries, then bounced back with a 27-point, seven-rebound night in the second game of the series. In 2023, she scored 30 points against the Phoenix Mercury, then came back and scored 36 more in the rematch.
But playing two games in such close proximity gives players room to adjust.
After scoring nine points on 3-for-5 shooting off the bench in the first game, Hailey Van Lith finished with 17 in the second. Rivers jumped from an 8-point, 2-for-11 night to a 17-point turnaround. And instead of getting run off the floor by 28, the Sun made it a 7-point game without center Brittney Griner.
“To only lose by 7 when A’ja was going off, I think we can live with that, and that’s something we can build off of,” Rivers said.
The Aces won’t play another miniseries until August, when they host the Washington Mystics for two games in three days (they also start a home-and-away series against the Chicago Sky in late June, but those games are five days apart).
The Sun, on the other hand, have to do it again Wednesday. While they’re out West for a five-game road trip, they’ll play the Seattle Storm on Wednesday, then see them again Friday.
The Sun have four total series on the schedule this season. They also have a three-day stretch in July during which they travel to Minnesota to play the Lynx on July 6, then return to Connecticut to host them two days later. Two weeks after that, they start a six-game road trip with back-to-back games against the Mercury.
Hammon on Sun leaving
Hammon has connections to Connecticut that stretch from her coaching days to her playing days to her childhood, with family rooted in the state. But she also has fond memories of what the Houston Comets did for the WNBA, as her New York Liberty teams ran into them twice in the 1999 and 2000 Finals.
So, in what might be her last trip to Uncasville, she described the Sun relocating to Houston as bittersweet.
“I’ve got a lot of good memories in this building,” Hammon said. “This team has been here since 2003. It’s kind of been a staple in the W. However, going back to Houston, I think is super exciting. I know that there’s a fan base there ready to explode and accept this team and is excited about the future. So, like life, things move on.”
Who’s hooping?
Brittney Sykes, Tempo: Golden State set the bar high for the league’s two expansion teams by making the playoffs in its first season. But Toronto went into Monday sitting at .500, thanks in large part to Sykes who dropped 38 points Sunday in Los Angeles to help deliver the franchise’s first road win.
Sonia Citron, Mystics: Three games into the season, the Mystics have already gone to overtime twice. They couldn’t pull off the comeback against the Liberty, but they stole a road win in Indiana thanks to Citron, who scored 30 points and accounted for 10 of Washington’s 15 points in overtime (5 points, two assists).
Appointment viewing
Golden State at New York, Thursday: The Liberty won both games against the Valkyries at Barclays Center last season. Veronica Burton is averaging 15 points and 7.3 assists through three games. Meanwhile, Breanna Stewart has put up 23 points and nine rebounds through New York’s first four.
Read more She hated her fifth-grade teacher. Decades later she decided to save his life.
Post Comment