LAS VEGAS — It wasn’t always pretty, but the Las Vegas Aces found a way.
Led by a strong second unit and a stingy defense, the No. 2 seed Aces held off the No. 4 seed Phoenix Mercury 89-86 in Game 1 of the WNBA Finals at Michelob ULTRA Arena on Friday night. The series is the first championship round in league history to be a best-of-seven.
Aces guard Dana Evans was the unlikely hero, scoring 21 points off the bench while going 5-of-6 from the 3-point line. She also added four steals, three assists, and two rebounds. Two of Evans’ five three-pointers came in the first half.
“I feel like I feed off my defense,” Evans said of her performance. “I feel like I got some early steals, early on, I got to the basket. I saw the ball going in, and I just kept being aggressive.”
Despite an uncharacteristic performance from Las Vegas, filled with miscues and defensive lapses, they held the Mercury to just 15 points in the final quarter, outscoring them 22-15 in the final 10 minutes.
Game 2 of the WNBA Finals is set for Sunday at 3 p.m. ET.
A’ja Wilson had 21 points, 10 rebounds, and five assists. Jewell Loyd had 18 points and four rebounds off the bench, and Jackie Young added 10 points and five assists on the evening.
With Las Vegas clinging to a one-point lead, Wilson turned the ball over in the final seconds, leading to Phoenix star Alyssa Thomas going to the free-throw line. Thomas missed both free throws, and Young drilled both on the other end, setting up one last chance for Phoenix on the other end.
Mercury forward Satou Sabally took a desperation heave from beyond the arc but missed with 2.4 seconds left to seal the win for Las Vegas.
“We ran a play to get Kahleah (Cooper) a look,” Mercury head coach Nate Tibbits said of the final play. “They did a good job of switching out.. I probably should have ran out and called a TO with six seconds to go.”
Despite the win, the Aces know they have work to do if they want to capture their third WNBA championship in the last four years. For starters, they need to keep Thomas out of the lane. The pick-and-roll, where a guard screens for Thomas, was difficult for Las Vegas to guard, and the Mercury went to that play time and time again.
“I was seeing them score too much against our man,” Las Vegas head coach Becky Hammon said. “Them getting the ball in the paint, whether it was off the pass or penetration, was really hurting us. It was putting us very vulnerable on the back side with those 3s. So just trying something different where maybe we didn’t give up the middle so easily.”
