First road trip of season sees Aces clamp down in Minnesota

A meeting between two of the WNBA’s top three teams resulted in a defensive clash that may have steered the back-to-back defending champions onto the right path in terms of identity.

Las Vegas ousted Minnesota, 80-66, Wednesday, May 29 from the Target Center in a meeting of the second and third best teams in the league based on overall record. Coming into the contest, the Lynx had the league’s best defensive rating.

“I mean, we’re finding our identity,” head coach Becky Hammon said. “That’s two games in a row where I’ve felt good about our overall defensive effort. I’m starting to recognize us a little bit on the defensive end.”

The Aces were playing in their first road game of the season as they improved to 4-1 through the year’s first five games.

Game two of a three-game road trip is set for Friday, May 31 against the Atlanta Dream. Tip-off is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. from the Gateway Center Arena at College Park.

“The target has been on our backs since I stepped foot in the league,” forward A’ja Wilson said. “I love it. I embrace it, I have fun with it and I bring my teammates along.”

Minnesota briefly took the, 31-30, lead in the second quarter on the heels of a 10-2 run. A one point on a couple of occasions was the largest lead the home team could build on the night. Looking to regain control of the game, Las Vegas countered with a 13-3 run heading into halftime to take a nine-point lead.

Fueled by that run before the break, the Aces pushed their lead to 12 points early in the third quarter. The Lynx would cut into the lead once again, even trimming it to a point on a 22-11 response.

As it had just before halftime, the reigning champs closed the quarter on a 5-0 run to stretch the lead back out to six heading into the final 10 minutes of play. That lead would later balloon to 17 points after a 7-0 run by Las Vegas.

“You better embrace the bullseye,” Hammon said. “The bullseye is a compliment, the bullseye means you’re the standard, everybody wants what you’ve got and that’s how they prove it – you know, you beat the Aces and its national news.

“When you’re trying to do really great things, you’ve got to embrace the hate and the love.”

Wilson set a new WNBA record for consecutive games with at least 20 points and 10 rebounds with her fifth straight outing with those numbers. She posted 29 points and 15 rebounds for the second straight game.

Guard Jackie Young tallied her second points - assists double-double through the first five games of the season. She closed this one with 19 points and 10 assists.

Fellow guard Kelsey Plum was the final player in double-figures with 10 points on 4-for-14 shooting.

Rookie Kate Martin was the first player off Hammon’s bench in this one as guards Chelsea Gray (lower left leg) and Kierstan Bell (lower right leg) missed another contest. Martin accounted for nine of the bench’s 13 points including a clutch three when the Lynx had trimmed the deficit to a point late in the third quarter.

“I think I have this reputation for not wanting to play bench players,” Hammon said.”I’ll play you but you’ve got to give me a reason to play you. I’m giving you three or four minutes, they have to be good, positive minutes. But at the end of the day, I came off the bench a lot at the beginning of my career. And guess what, my leash was not as long as some of the other players so you have to be locked in.”