LAS VEGAS — Will the Mercury win a game in these WNBA Finals?
The problem for them is that the Aces are doing exactly what they set out to do — carry forward their championship experience while bringing new players into the fold.
Now up 2-0 in the series, the Aces are finding different ways to win. In Game 1, it was their newcomers. In Game 2, a 91-78 victory Sunday at Michelob Ultra Arena, their championship core turned back the clock. Guard Jackie Young scored a Finals-record 21 points in the third quarter, and if star forward A’ja Wilson had made one more basket, they would have become the first teammates in Finals history to each score 30.
“I dropped the ball on that one,” Wilson said afterward, laughing.
Young’s scoring explosion was the big story, but the setup came earlier. In the first half, Aces guard Chelsea Gray flashed her signature creativity, dazzling with a handful of blink-and-you’ll-miss-them assists. During a run in the second quarter, she motioned for Wilson to hurry up in transition, switched the ball from her left hand to her right and zipped a perfect slider into the paint.
The scary thing for the Mercury? The Aces didn’t even need that kind of magic in Game 1, when Gray’s understudy, former Sky guard Dana Evans, stole the show, scoring 21 points off the bench with timely threes and backcourt steals to seal the win. Aces coach Becky Hammon said afterward that Wilson and Young (21 and 10 points, respectively) had “average or below-average games.”
“That’s what makes us tough,” Hammon said after Game 2. “It can be anybody on any given night. Dana and [guard] Jewell [Loyd] can come in and hit you for 15 or 20. That’s a lot of firepower.”
It certainly is. But the Aces have needed it, considering what they lost in the offseason. Guard Kelsey Plum, a member of their “Core Four,” left for the Sparks, with key rotation pieces Tiffany Hayes and Alysha Clark also departing. This season has required the team to find new chemistry and rediscover what makes them the Aces — a long and bumpy road. They hovered around .500 early, falling as low as eighth in the standings. There were intense group-chat messages from Wilson, lineup changes and emotional team meetings before they won 18 of their final 19 games to close the regular season as the No. 2 seed.
It’s hard to tell what was more surprising — the slow start or the surge.
So at this point, with the Aces clicking, is there any hope for the No. 4 seed Mercury? They entered the Finals with swagger and extra rest, having taken down both the defending-champion Liberty and last year’s runners-up, the Lynx. But they have since looked nothing like that team. Maybe there’s a silver lining to starting the Finals 0-2: They need their backs against the wall to play their best.
The Mercury are happiest when they’re the underdogs. That applies to not only their star, forward Alyssa Thomas, but the supporting cast.
“A lot of our players have been overlooked their whole career,” coach Nate Tibbetts said earlier this week.
Heading back to Phoenix, they’ll need to channel that edge again on their home court, which even Wilson acknowledged is a tough place to play. But the Aces have already shown two different versions of themselves that can win in dominant fashion. The Mercury are still looking for one.
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