‘Some good news’: Wilson leads Aces to playoff berth — PHOTOS
There was a celebration Friday at Michelob Ultra Arena as the Aces beat the Atlanta Dream 83-72 to clinch the organization’s sixth consective WNBA playoff berth.
The milestone was displayed in large font on the jumbotron. Fans offered a standing ovation.
Aces coach Becky Hammon didn’t quite share the festive spirit.
“I mean, great, we’re in the playoffs. Great,” she said. “But I don’t care. I care about Phoenix (on Sunday) next.”
A’ja Wilson, who led the Aces (19-12) with 26 points and 16 rebounds, offered a different sentiment.
“That’s a big deal for us,” the two-time MVP said. “Obviously, with the season that we’re having now, we always love some good news, but the job is not done.”
Wilson’s showing made her the first player in WNBA history to record at least 25 points, 15 rebounds and five blocks more than once in a season, and she’s the first to do it without a turnover. She also reached the milestone of 2,000 rebounds, becoming the second-youngest player in WNBA history to do so.
Tiffany Hayes added her own double-double of 20 points and 10 rebounds. She made her third start of the season, filling in for Jackie Young, who was ruled out before the game for rest.
It was Hayes’ first double-double since 2018, a feat she noted is “hard to come by.” The performance was even sweeter for her because it came against the team for which she played the first 10 seasons of her career. Hayes was traded from the Dream to the Connecticut Sun in February 2023, and she retired from the league following that season.
Allisha Gray had 17 points for the Dream (10-21), whose loss also secured a postseason spot for the Seattle Storm. The Aces are now ahead of the Storm for the No. 4 spot in the league’s standings.
The Aces next play at the Phoenix Mercury at 1 p.m. Sunday.
Here are three takeaways from the victory:
1. Work to do
Since defense has been a point of concern for the Aces this season, Wilson was hesitant to answer a postgame question about the team’s effort on that side of the ball.
She waited for Hammon to look at the stat sheet and see that the Aces limited the Dream 20 points or less in each quarter.
“That’s pretty good,” Hammon whispered to Wilson.
“That’s pretty good,” Wilson said into the microphone. “But we still have work to do. We’re not perfect, but at the same time, I’m very pleased with our defensive mindset today.”
The Dream did hit a season-high 11 3-pointers, and Wilson added that the Aces will keep “growing.”
Hammon emphasized that the Aces will need to keep climbing toward the proverbial mountaintop of a WNBA title.
“There’s no chairlift,” Hammon said.
2. Young sits
The Aces never trailed the Dream by more than four points. They took advantage of the absence of Dream veteran Tina Charles (personal), Cheyenne Parker-Tyus (ankle) and Aerial Powers (calf) to give Young a break. That choice might have come at a cost for Hammon, who said after the game that the guard was “not happy with” her.
Hammon had previously noted that Young didn’t look like herself after returning from winning gold with Team USA at the Paris Olympics.
“So I made the executive decision to sit her,” Hammon said. “We’ll get through it. There just wasn’t another time to get her rest.”
The Aces welcomed Alysha Clark back into the starting lineup with Young out, and Clark had seven points, four rebounds and four assists. Sydney Colson had six points in 11 minutes off the bench, but the Dream’s reserves still outscored the Aces’ bench players 18-8.
3. Praise for Gray
Point guard Chelsea Gray didn’t score her first points of the game until the fourth quarter, finishing with four points, three assists and two steals.
One of those steals came two minutes into the second quarter on a bad pass from Rhyne Howard.
It almost turned into an unreal highlight play from Gray, who passed the ball over her head backward right into Kelsey Plum’s hands under the opposite basket. Plum passed it to Colson, who missed the layup. Hammon said she plans to give Colson grief about the missed layup “all day.”
Still, she praised Gray’s continued effort in returning from missing the first 12 games of the season with a lower leg injury.
“She didn’t shoot very well, but she had timely ones. She had big ones,” Hammon said. “She’s doing great when you consider that she’s not even a year out of surgery, not even close. So she’s doing wonderful.”
Contact Callie Lawson-Freeman at clawsonfreeman@reviewjournal.com. Follow @CallieJLaw on X.