Las Vegas pulls away from Seattle late, secure at least 4 seed

Las Vegas hit the gas pedal late in essentially the battle for the No. 4 seed in this year’s WNBA Playoffs against Seattle.

The Aces pulled away from the Storm, 85-72, Tuesday, Sept. 17 from the Climate Pledge Arena. Entering play, Las Vegas held a one-game lead on Seattle with two more games to play in the regular season.

“Good night for us,” head coach Becky Hammon said. “It’s always better to learn in wins than losses. Basically down the stretch, it was our zone that we were able to get stops and hit some shots.”

With another win added to their ledger, the Aces have won eight of their last nine games to improve to 26-13 on the year. With one more game left to play, the team is still in contention for the third seed that is currently held by the Connecticut Sun.

”For me, I don’t care what seed we are,” forward A’ja Wilson said. “It’d be nice to have a higher seed and play at home which would be cool but it's a whole new brand of basketball that you have to play when you get to playoffs.”

Las Vegas owns the season series over Connecticut, 3-0. If the playoffs were to start today, the Aces and the Storm would be locked into the four-five matchup of the playoff bracket.

“We’ll respond better,” Hammon said. “It’s going to be interesting for both squads that we just played each other and now we’re going to see each other likely in a few days.”

Having already played all of their road games for the regular season, the Aces will now return home for their regular season finale. The team will host the Dallas Wings Thursday, Sept. 19 from the Michelob Ultra Arena with tip-off slated for 7 p.m.

While Las Vegas’ defensive effort appeared to remain, considering the final score, the team needed a 22-11 fourth quarter showing in order to preserve the win Tuesday night.

In door-slamming fashion, the Aces went on a 19-2 run near the conclusion of the game to run the lead back to 16.

Las Vegas’ largest lead of the game was 18 in the first half before Seattle’s jolt of energy made things more interesting heading into halftime. The home team snuck out on a 14-2 run late in the second quarter to trim the double-digit lead to six.

That 14-2 run would be stretched to 18-4 including the early parts of the third quarter, a frame that was ultimately won by the Storm by six points.

“They’re a good team,” Hammon said. “Even without [Olympian Jewell Loyd], they have [guard Skylar Diggins-Smith] — [forward] Gabby Williams is playing really well for them. They have people that can get it in gear, I just felt like we didn’t have the gas pedal down all the way.”

The lead would only keep shrinking, first down to two and then down to a point. Early in the fourth quarter, Seattle would snatch its first lead of the game at 65-64.

Guard Kelsey Plum seemingly had an answer for every run by the Storm. Amidst the big run prior to halftime, the two-time champion hushed the crowd with a floater that beat the buzzer to give the Aces an eight-point lead at the break.

In the first quarter, Plum cashed in on two threes, the second of which gave her team its first double-digit lead of the game. She’d answer the bell again in the third quarter in the middle of the run that saw Las Vegas temporarily lose the lead.

Plum finished with 21 points that shared for a team-high on 7-of-11 from the field.

“Sometimes I just be blacking out,” she said. “I would say this year more than ever, people talk the most. I don’t mind it.”

Wilson exploded for 10 points in the first quarter and would close her outing with 21 points on 50% shooting to go along with seven rebounds. In fact, she set the single-season rebounding record in the game’s opening quarter with her 447th of the year.

“What record? Rebounds?” Wilson said. “Oh, that’s cool. Only because I don’t hunt rebounds so it’s never on my mind.”

Fellow starters Jackie Young and Chelsea Gray chipped in with 16 and 13 points respectively in addition to a combined 10 rebounds and 11 assists. At one point during the first half, the guard trio of Plum, Young and Gray had combined for 28 points on 11-for-14 from the field.

Veteran guard Tiffany Hayes added 10 points in 21-plus minutes off-the-bench for Hammon’s group.

”I don’t think we’ve all been on the same page for a game,” Plum said. “A’s been doing her thing all year but then its been maybe one of us or two of us but not really all of us at the same time.

”That was what was so unique about last year, almost every game almost everyone was unbelievable. You have to give credit to the league, people have adjusted and played differently.”