FSM Essential Recap: Aces vs Sun – WNBA Aces vs Sun – Finals – Game 2

Franchise Sports Media

Las Vegas Aces (2-0)  |  Connecticut Sun (0-2)

 

After handing the Connecticut Sun a second loss on Tuesday night, the Las Vegas Aces are one win away from claiming their first WNBA championship.

 

RECAP:

 

“Styles make fights.”

We’ve all heard the phrase before — a sports expression implying how one opponent may present specific challenges to one group that it may not be able to offer others. And for the past couple of seasons, the Connecticut Sun‘s physical, size-focused style of basketball had been a true thorn in the side of the Las Vegas Aces.

And while there was a valid argument for those challenges being present in the grind-it-out, defensive dogfight that was Sunday’s Game 1, there’s no glass-half-full approach available for the Sun following Tuesday’s game. The Aces made it known from the opening tip that they accepted all challenges and would dictate how Game 2 would be played.

“Those first quarters are so important because you never want to find yourself digging yourself out of a hole, especially when you’re playing against a good team like Conn because they don’t go anywhere,” said A’ja Wilson on the Aces‘ first-quarter performance. “If we can keep our mindset and composure in the first quarter and set the tone, it’s helpful for us later on down the road.”

 

The 23-point opening quarter, again led by Chelsea Gray‘s and A’ja Wilson‘s scoring, undoubtedly set the tone as it did in Game 1. But unlike Sunday’s game, in which the momentum of a fast start was immediately erased by a nine-point second quarter, a third contributor made an appearance. Or, as Kelsey Plum put it, she decided to join the party.

“A lot of times, I’m hard on myself, and I feel like I’ve been a little bit frustrated how I’ve performed throughout the whole playoffs,” said Plum following the win. “I’m glad that they have been carrying it, and I decided to join the party.”

Plum‘s 20-point performance was a pleasant and needed Game 2 outcome for both herself and the team. She’d been struggling to find a way to impact games in the playoffs in the same way that she had been throughout the regular season. The sizable dip in production and efficiency had left a lot more on the plates of Wilson and Gray throughout the postseason, which they miraculously managed to carry.

Nevertheless, it was a balanced attack from Vegas and its Big 3, which all scored 20 or more points, cruised to an 85-71 win at Michelob ULTRA Arena on Tuesday night.

 

NOTES:

 

• Points in the paint – A big reason why the Aces, the WNBA‘s highest-scoring team of the regular season (90.4 ppg), scored just 67 points in Game 1 was because of how poorly they attacked the paint. They turned their Game 1 total of 20 points in the paint into 46 in Game 2. A more concerted effort from Plum and Gray to get downhill, while Wilson did more damage around the rim, made the Vegas offense look more like what we’ve grown accustomed to seeing at Michelob Ultra Arena.

 

• Limiting opportunities – It’s no secret that the Connecticut Sun is a physical basketball team. Their three best players Alyssa Thomas, Jonquel Jones, and Brionna Jones) are all frontcourt players with size. As a result, the Sun led the league in offensive rebounds (10.2) and second-chance points (13.5) throughout the regular season. Those two areas are significant factors in how the Sun win games, and the Aces basically eliminating that from Connecticut‘s attack on Tuesday night hurt their scoring total.

 

TOP PERFORMERS:

 

A’ja Wilson (Aces): 26 PTS, 10 REBS, 1 BLK

Chelsea Gray (Aces): 21 PTS, 8 ASTS, 3 STLS, 2/6 3PT

Kelsey Plum (Aces): 20 PTS, 7 ASTS, 1 STL

Courtney Williams (Sun): 18 PTS, 5 ASTS

Jonquel Jones (Sun): 16 PTS, 11 REBS, 3 ASTS

Alyssa Thomas (Sun): 13 PTS, 3 REBS, 4 ASTS, 2 STLS

 

The Aces and Sun head to Connecticut for Game 3 of the Finals, which is set for a 6:00 p.m. PST tip-off on Thursday, September 15th. ESPN will have the coverage. 

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-Cole Huff– Franchise Sports Media