The Guru’s WNBA Finals Roundup: Wilson Again Leads Las Vegas Over Phoenix as Aces Claim a 4-0 Sweep and 3rd Title in Four Seasons

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

Four of a kind in the form of triumphs finished being dealt by the Las Vegas Aces Friday night, completed as quickly as possible in the expanded best of seven WNBA finals in the form of a 97-86 victory to make it a series sweep in Phoenix of the hometown Mercury before a mammoth crowd of 17,071 in the Mortgage Matchup Center by again going straight inside to their Ace of Aces in A’ja Wilson, who scored 31 points and grabbed 9 boards with 4 assists and 3 blocks.

In becoming the second team in the 29-year history of the women’s pro basketball league to claim three titles in four seasons, the other being the former Houston Comets who streaked to the first four championships in the WNBA from 1997 to 2000, the claim of coach Becky Hammon’s group to earn a dynasty brand becomes a perfect fit.

“You have your Mount Rushmore, she’s alone on Everest,” Hammon said of Wilson, the Finals MVP, who this season, including the playoffs, acquired more records than a collection of DJs working a 24-hour music radio station. “There’s no one else around.”

The 29-year-old Wilson, who led Dawn Staley’s South Carolina squad to the first of three NCAA titles, averaged 28.5 points, 11.8 rebounds, and a pair of blocks in the Finals capping a playoff run as the only player in the WNBA ever to reach 300 points in the postseason.

She won her record fourth MVP in the regular season for leading the Aces on a closing 16-game win streak to the playoffs following a 53-point home loss on Aug. 2 to the Minnesota Lynx, the league’s other dynasty with four crowns over seven years, leaving Las Vegas at .500 with a 14-14 record.

Additionally, Wilson earned her second Finals MVP, third Defensive Player of the Year, and was the league’s leading scorer with a 26.8 average.

Wilson has accumulated many more records putting her strongly in the G.O.A.T. conversation.

The dirty work on the way to the Finals, however, was handled by the upstart fourth-seeded Mercury, who dethroned champion New York in the first round, taking the last two games after losing to the Liberty at home in the opener.

Phoenix next after losing the semifinal opener then went on to win three straight, beginning with a 20-point rally on the road, to triumph in overtime against Minnesota, which dominated the season but was deprived of a record fifth WNBA title.

Las Vegas, a two-seed, which after winning its first playoff game, got extended to the final moments of decisive Game 3 by Seattle in the first round, and then taken into overtime in decisive Game 5 by injury-riddled Indiana which was missing reigning rookie of the year Caitlin Clark and four other teammates.

But in the Finals Las Vegas was a force but still executed a turning point in Game 3 when after Phoenix rallied from a deep deficit to tie, Wilson broke the hearts of the Mercury faithful scoring in the concluding moments Wednesday to put the Aces up 3-0 to continue building a sweep.

On Friday night, Wilson got help in the second quarter from the three-point shooting of Chelsea Gray, Jackie Young and Jewell Loyd, the latter who opted for a reserve role after coming from Seattle in the offseason.

Gray and Young each scored 18 points.

Wilson arrived in the postgame press conference in the wake of the champagne celebration wearing ski goggles and toting a pink tambourine, which she shook to approve of answers she enjoyed.

“This is a symbol of the joyfulness we have right now,” she said with a grin. “I’m just so grateful to be with this bunch – and that’s not the alcohol talking.”

Phoenix, which was missing Satou Sabally, who suffered a concussion in Game 3, had one last rally, cutting a 14-point deficit at the outset of the fourth quarter Friday night to six at 76-70 with 7:56 left in regulation.

But it ended there as Gray was to connect with two of her four shots from deep.

North Philadelphia’s Kahleah Copper, a former Rutgers standout, shot 12-22 from the field to score 30 for Phoenix while Maryland grad Alyssa Thomas out of Harrisburg added to her regular season and playoff WNBA career-leading playoff totals of triple doubles with one more at 17 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists.

Officiating has been under fire league-wide from various WNBA stakeholders all season and another flashpoint occurred when Phoenix coach Nate Tibbetts was ejected in the third quarter after two quick technical fouls from Gina Cross while disputing a foul call.

The Mercury’s DeWanna Bonner and Copper also were assessed with technicals in the fourth quarter.

Besides addressing the penalties afterwards, calling the action “embarrassing,” Tibbetts said of the Aces, “Unbelievable team - they were just playing at an extremely high level. We put ourselves in position to have a chance in a couple of games, but what a run they've been on. Hitting big shots after big shots.”

Looking Ahead

As conference media days occur this month, hailing the arrival of the next collegiate season beginning November 3, though defending champion UConn is playing Boston College Monday afternoon in an exhibition game at the Mohegan Sun, the WNBA, which was done its seasons by Labor Day early in its history, will be in the news away from the court.

There’s just three weeks left until the October 31 deadline in the contentious negotiations for a new CBA, a situation illustrated when booing could be heard when commissioner Cathy Engelbert was introduced to present the championship and MVP trophies.

Over 90 percent of the players will be under free agency as ESPN analyst Rebecca Lobo noted the mass movement to new teams that might occur.

Following the successful debut of Golden State this season, selling out every home game in the 18,000-seat Chase Center in San Francisco, expansion drafts await a CBA deal to occur to begin stocking the rosters of the new teams launching in Toronto and Portland next season.

And Unrivaled, the 3x3 winter league with WNBA players co-founded by New York’s Breanna Stewart and Minnesota’s Napheesa Collier and her husband, returns for a second season in January in Miami with a one-night stand January 30 fielding a doubleheader at the Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia, home of the NBA 76ers.

 

The Guru’s WNBA Finals Roundup: Wilson’s Game-Winner Gives Las Vegas a 3-0 Lead Spoiling Phoenix’s Fourth Quarter Rally

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

Former South Carolina great A’ja Wilson is firing Las Vegas through the WNBA finals the way the now four-time MVP helped the Aces shred the 13-team league the last two months of the regular season.

Wilson ruined a Phoenix comeback in Game 3 of the best-of-seven series Wednesday night  before a Mercury heartbroken hometown crowd of 17,071 at the Mortgage Matchup Center with a last second shot for a 90-88 victory and a 3-0 lead making it likely unnecessary for the expanded two games the league added in the hopes of making the five-game thriller won by New York last season even more so this time.

The Aces now sit 40 minutes away from taking their third title in the last four seasons when the series resumes in Phoenix Friday night at 8 p.m. on ESPN.

The only other team in the WNBA’s 29-year history to carry out a similar feat was the former Houston Comets, which won the league’s first four titles from 1997-2000 and the first one was a single winner-take-all affair.

“I mean under (coach) Becky (Hammon) we’ve never won a Game 3,” Wilson said. “This was a must-win for us. Just for that sake.

“I feel like my biggest mentality and the thing I relayed to my teammates is like, we just need to win one … win possessions, win the quarters, and then everything else will pan out.”

Hammon wisecracked afterward on what she drew up for what became the ninth game-winner in the last five seconds of a Finals contest in the history of the league.

“Get the ball to A’ja and get out of the way,” Hammon jested.

Wilson, who as a senior gave another league legend, Dawn Staley, the first of three Gamecocks NCAA titles, double-doubled with 34 points shooting 11-20 from the field while grabbing 14 rebounds.

It’s her fifth career 30-point double-double in the postseason, and third one for a player to produce in the Finals, joining New York’s Breanna Stewart in 2021 then with Seattle and last season with the Liberty, and Stewart’s teammate Jonquel Jones then with the Connecticut Sun in 2019.

Wilson, though, nearly became the goat instead of her acclaim as a G.O.A.T. when she committed a turnover losing the ball on a backdoor cut with the score tied 88-88 and 40 seconds left in regulation.

“It may not necessarily be me to get it back, but I knew it was going to be on the defensive end or something,” Wilson said. “I just knew I had to get something back because that would have crushed my whole soul. When I saw the next play was for me, I was like, ‘Trust me.’”

Jewell Loyd said there was no doubt on her teammate’s ability to win the contest.

“We all had 100 percent confidence in A’ja,” Loyd said. “Everyone on that bench was saying, ‘We’re winning this game.’”

When August arrived, the Aces had been reduced to a .500 team suffering a WNBA worst-ever home blowout to Minnesota, then the prohibitive favorite to win a record fifth league title.

But Las Vegas then went on to capture the Aces’ last 16 games, took the playoff opener but next suffered a 16-4 meltdown at the finish in Game 2 in Seattle and then advanced on a last second win at home over the Storm.

In the semifinals, injury-riddled Indiana minus Caitlin Clark and four teammates won the best-of-five opener in Las Vegas, tied the series 2-2 at home and then on the road took the Aces to the last seconds of overtime before Hammon’s team prevailed.

In this one, the Aces were dominating, up 17 heading into the fourth quarter over Phoenix, which had knocked out defending champion New York with a two-game rally in the first round, then went on to even the semifinals with a 20-point rally on top-seed Minnesota in Game 2 and sweep the next two at home, advancing with a 14-point rally in Game 4.

That was the Mercury team that came to life with another comeback in the final period to tie the score down the stretch.

“We threw a punch, and they crawled back,” Hammon said. "I think to a certain degree, of course, I want the game to be played perfectly, but you have to credit them for getting hot and giving themselves a chance to win at the end. ... They had to win that one.”

Phoenix is alive now only because in the first-ever best-of-seven Finals, the Aces have to win one more to complete the first sweep in the championship since losing in the Covid-19 caused bubble season in Miami in 2020 to Seattle 3-0.

But the Mercury have a daunting task, needing to sweep the next four games to overcome Las Vegas.

“We’ve had plenty of opportunities to go out there and get a win,” said Phoenix’s Alyssa Thomas, the WNBA career leader in regular season and playoffs triple-doubles who starred at Maryland out of Harrisburg. “At some point we have to take it upon ourselves.”

Thomas, who just missed another triple-double with 14 points, 12 boards and nine assists, played her entire WNBA career with Connecticut prior to this season.

Jackie Young added 21 points for the Aces, Chelsea Gray scored 11, and Loyd scored 16 as a reserve.

The Mercury’s Satou Sabally scored 24, North Philly’s Kahleah Copper, who starred at Rutgers, scored 17, and off the bench DeWanna Bonner, who came from Indiana at midseason, scored 25 points with 10 rebounds, but missed a chance to rescue Phoenix following Wilson’s tiebreaker.

“I’m not going to sugarcoat,” said Mercury coach Nate Tibbetts. “We’ve got a tough road ahead, but we’ve got to take it one game at a time.”