The Best Three-Point Shooting Team in the League Got Shut Down. Aces Win 92-73
The Golden State Valkyries came into Michelob Ultra Arena leading the league in three-point shooting at 36.4 percent, averaging 11.5 made threes a game, with over 45 percent of their shots coming from beyond the arc. The most prolific three-point shooting team in the WNBA.
The Aces held them to 16.7 percent. Five made threes. A franchise low and season low for Golden State.
That is not an accident. That is a game plan executed to perfection. Final score: Aces 92, Valkyries 73. Las Vegas improves to 12-4.
I asked Becky how they did it
After the game I had to ask Coach Hammon directly how do you hold the best three-point shooting team in the league to 17 percent? Her answer told you everything about how locked in this defense was.
"Guard the three-point line. They get up a lot of them, they shoot them efficiently, so we just wanted to make sure they weren't getting easy ones, comfortable ones where they get into a groove on you quickly. No short closeouts. They have too many good shooters. Being solid not only on closeouts but one on one defense, because that's how they create those open looks they attack you, get downhill, and then paint and spray. It was just a real focus on the defensive end to take away and limit their good looking threes."
Paint and spray. That's exactly what Golden State lives on attack the rim, collapse the defense, kick out to a shooter standing in a wide open spot. The Aces took that away completely. Over the first three quarters they held the Valkyries to 9.5 percent from three. Nine point five percent. That's not a cold shooting night. That's a defense that refused to let them breathe.
The third quarter was a clinic
Las Vegas shot 91.7 percent from the field in the third quarter. Let that sink in. Eleven made shots on twelve attempts. The lead never dropped below 17 points in that period and by the time the fourth quarter started this game was already decided.
The stretch that really broke Golden State's spirit came at the end of the first half a 21-2 Aces run where they held the Valkyries to just two free throws over a 6 minute, 35 second stretch while forcing three turnovers and zero makes on nine attempts. Zero for nine. That's the kind of defensive sequence that ends a game before halftime even arrives.
Jackie Young led the way
21 points, 5 assists, a game high scoring performance from Young who continues to find more and more rhythm as the season goes on. With those 5 assists she passed her own head coach Becky Hammon for No. 2 on the all-time Aces assist list with 1,137 career assists. Chelsea Gray sits at No. 1 with 1,179. Two of the greatest point guards this organization has ever had, both still adding to their legacies in real time.
A'ja Wilson keeps climbing the record books
19 points and 9 rebounds and she extended her league leading streak of consecutive double-digit scoring games to 40. Forty straight games. She is now just 5 points away from passing her own teammate Jewell Loyd for No. 15 on the WNBA all-time scoring list. Lisa Leslie sits at No. 14. Wilson is going to pass both of them within the next few games.
Chelsea Gray and the bench all contributed
Gray flirted with a double-double of her own 15 points and 9 assists, orchestrating this offense the way she always does. Jewell Loyd and NaLyssa Smith each added 14. This team had production from everywhere tonight and that balance is exactly what makes them so difficult to prepare for.
A franchise milestone closing in
The Aces are now just 3 wins away from becoming the fifth franchise in WNBA history to reach 500 all-time victories joining Los Angeles, Minnesota, New York, and Connecticut. Phoenix is right there too, sitting at 499. This is shaping up to be a race worth watching.
My take
This was a complete team performance built entirely around one defensive game plan take away the three-point line from the best three-point shooting team in the league and the Aces executed it from start to finish. 68.2 percent shooting through three quarters. A season high 90 percent from the free throw line. Five different players in double figures or close to it.
Becky Hammon had a plan and her players executed it perfectly. That's what championship teams do.
Las Vegas hosts the New York Liberty next on June 23 at 7pm a preview of the Commissioner's Cup championship game these two teams will play just one week later. That game airs nationally on USA and locally on The Spot-Vegas 34. Her Game Network will be there.