Gray magic, bench scoring fuel Aces bounce back win over the Wings
Arion Armeniakos
Host · Writer
LAS VEGAS – Aces head coach Becky Hammon’s biggest takeaway from her team’s loss to New York on Tuesday was offensive inefficiency.
The Aces shot 43 percent from the field and 30 percent from three against the Liberty, all while only getting to the line eight times. Hammon urged her group to do better in the shooting department and be more aggressive against the Dallas Wings on Thursday, and the message did not fall on deaf ears.
The Aces converted at a 53 percent clip from the field — 44 percent from beyond the arc — and went 27-33 at the free throw line to get back to winning ways in a dominant 99-84 victory — their 13th of the campaign (13-5).
Las Vegas started strong, winning the first quarter by 11 points, and ended similarly, outscoring Dallas by seven in the fourth to avoid getting swept on the season by the Wings after losing the two previous meetings, both on the road.
Four-time MVP A’ja Wilson led all scorers with 32 points and was one rebound shy of a double-double. Jackie Young chipped in with 20 points, nine rebounds, and six assists on a night where she was perfect (10-10) at the charity stripe.
The two main stories of the game, however, were Chelsea Gray and the bench.
With nine assists, Gray became just the fourth player in WNBA history to amass at least 4,500 points and 2,000 assists. The 31 bench points were the third most of the season from Hammon’s second unit and the most without Chennedy Carter’s scoring burst.
Chelsea is Gray-t
‘The Point Gawd’ received her flowers in full after turning in yet another history-making performance against the Wings. It was her sixth straight game with 7+ assists — the longest streak of her career.
“We talk about A’ja and not sleeping on her greatness. We can’t sleep on Chelsea’s greatness either,” Hammon said. “What she does is really special and in a way generational. She’s just that elite at what she does. She’s still pretty young, too, so those things are going to continue to rack up for her.”
Gray put on display her typical catalogue of dazzling dimes, proving pivotal in the Aces’ return to the win column. She added 12 points — four of them on a 7-0 start to the fourth quarter, which all but put the game out of reach, forcing Dallas into a timeout down 78-63 under two minutes into the frame.
Gray started the run with a 12-foot fadeaway jumper and ended it with a driving layup, using a strong seal inside from Cheyenne Parker-Tyus. Sandwiched in between was a dish to Kierstan Bell, who drilled her second triple of the night from the corner.
When Gray plays point guard, more often than not, fans in attendance will get left scratching their heads at least once a game. That’s a given. It’ll likely be more, because she pushes the envelope that much. Not many have ever seen the game the way she does.
So much so that even the woman of the moment herself is sometimes surprised at what she can do with the basketball in her hands.
“[For sure], there are a lot of close calls that happen,” she said. “Basketball sometimes is [a game of] inches. People are just so good, and it’s all about timing. So, sometimes I do surprise myself like, ‘Oh, almost got me there.’ But I think I [also] enjoy that part of it as well.”
Bench came to play
The Aces were able to combat a combined 47 points from Paige Bueckers (25) and Jessica Shepard (22) largely thanks to the tremendous effort from the second unit.
Parker-Tyus paced the group with 13 points in what was her second consecutive game in double-digits scoring — the first time she has done that since 2014. Bell added 10 points on 4-for-4 shooting (2-2 3PT). Jewell Loyd chipped in with 8 points — including two triples.
Outside of holding the Wings to just 2-21 from beyond the arc — with Bueckers (0-3) and Arike Ogunbowale (0-5) going a combined 0-for-8, the bench scoring was crucial. Hammon appreciated what she got from the group on both ends of the floor.
“Getting that kind of production from our bench is huge,” she said. “It takes a load off our starters and Cheyenne, a couple of years ago she was an All-Star, so we know she’s capable.
“But I’ve been on the team as a whole about defense, sometimes it’s about matchups, so the best thing about Cheyenne is who she is as a person. She has gotten some DNPs and that’s not easy when you’re that caliber of a player. But she has been making some impactful plays defensively which is what I’m really looking for more than the offense.”
The Aces will now jet off to Chicago to face the Sky on Sunday before their mouthwatering showdown versus the Liberty for the Commissioner’s Cup in Brooklyn on Tuesday.
