Jeff Metcalfe
Jeff Metcalfe
Turns out the Las Vegas Aces didn’t peak in the regular season after all.
The Aces won 16 straight games in August and September to climb from mediocrity (14-14) to the WNBA No. 2 playoff seed (30-14). Only to go 5-3 in the first two postseason rounds, surviving elimination games against Seattle by one point and Indiana in overtime.
That’s why most expected the first best-of-7 WNBA Finals to be lengthy and that the No. 4 seed Phoenix Mercury had a respectable chance of winning.
Instead, the Aces found the form that carried them to the second longest win streak in WNBA history (17 including the first game of the playoffs). On Friday, they completed a four-game sweep of the Mercury with a 97-86 win before another sellout (17,071) at Mortgage Matchup Center, elevating to dynasty territory with their third title in four years.
A’ja Wilson, averaging 28.5 points and 11.8 rebounds, added WNBA Finals MVP (second overall) to her league regular season MVP (fourth). Chelsea Gray and Jackie Young are also three-time Aces champions and Gray now is the only player with four WNBA titles including 2016 while with Los Angeles.
Of a comparison to six-time NBA champion Michael Jordan, 29-year-old Wilson said, “I still have a little more winning to do before you put me in the conversation with him. But when you’re compared to greats, when you’re compared to legends, that means you’re doing something right.”
She is also WNBA Defensive Player of the Year and the first to win that award plus both MVP awards in the same season. She and Bill Russell are the only WNBA/NBA players to win three titles and league MVPs over four years.
“I think these ladies are at the top of the game,” Aces coach Becky Hammon said. “It is the best basketball that the W has ever seen from top to bottom.”
The Mercury beat 2024 finalists New York and Minnesota to reach the Finals for the first time since 2021. They were in pursuit of their first title since 2014 and fourth overall.
Instead, they were swept out of the Finals for the first time in six appearances, playing Game 4 without one of their stars Satou Sabally due to a concussion she suffered in the fourth quarter of Game 3.
Without 6-4 Sabally, Mercury coach Nate Tibbetts put 6-4 DeWanna Bonner into the starting lineup and started out with 6-3 Natasha Mack guarding 6-4 Wilson.
Mack picked up two fouls in the first two minutes and never returned. Instead, Tibbetts gave 6-7 Kalani Brown her first meaningful postseason minutes with results (10 points, 4 rebounds in 18 minutes) suggesting she should have been given a look earlier in the series.
“Any time you lose a player of Satou’s caliber, that’s going to change the positions we’ve been in,” Tibbetts said. “We’ve been in a pretty tight eight-player rotation for the last month and a half, and everyone kind of knows their roles.
“Kalani did an awesome job. Obviously, she hasn’t played as much as she wanted to this year. I thought she handled it super professionally.”
Like Sabally, who was not in the arena due to her symptoms, Tibbetts was not on the court at the end. He picked up two technical fouls with 2:41 left in the third quarter and the Mercury trailing 68-54.
“I feel bad that I was tossed,” Tibbetts said. “I think it’s one of the weakest double technical ever. I didn’t even know I got the second one. It wasn’t needed in my opinion. We’re playing for our playoff lives.
“Most coaches when they get tossed, you’re doing it on purpose. That was not my intention at all. I feel like I didn’t deserve that. I thought it was bull—-.”
Lead official Roy Gulbeyan told a pool reporter that Tibbetts aggressively came onto the floor and twice dropped two F bombs, necessitating two technicals and ensuing ejection.
Like in Game 3, when they trailed by 17 going into the fourth and lost by two, the Mercury rallied again in the fourth from 14 down.
They pulled within six with 7:14 remaining before Gray made a 3-pointer to start a game-deciding 6-0 Aces run. Phoenix got no closer than eight points over the final six minutes, falling to 1-7 against Las Vegas for the season.
Kahleah Copper had 30 points without making a 3-pointer to lead the Mercury. Alyssa Thomas, named All-WNBA first team earlier Friday, had her third career Finals triple-double (17 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists) and is the only player in league history with a Finals triple-double.
Thomas suffered an apparent shoulder injury with 36 seconds left in the third quarter but after imaging returned to play the entire fourth.
“This team just showed what we’re about,” said Thomas, without a title in three Finals appearances. “I don’t think I ever been a part of a game like that, but super proud of how we fought, continued to play through everything.
“It’s been a great season. No one expected us to even be here. Of course it didn’t go the way that we want it to end, but we have a lot to build on.”
Copper averaged 19.9 points in the series including her postseason high 30 Friday. The Mercury had five double-figure scorers total only to lose despite that success for the second time in the series after going 14-0 in such games during the regular season.
“Immediately after the game I brought us all together, and I was like take a couple minutes, feel it, hear it,” said Copper, who was Finals MVP in 2021 when Chicago beat the Mercury 3-1. “You hate this feeling. You hear the other team celebrating. Just remember what this feeling feels like. Remember the hurt. Just remember everything that you feel in this moment and then just let that fuel you for the future.”
