Aces outlast Fever in OT
By Ben Dull
Wilson drops career-high 39, Cambage bounces back for 12 in OT
This is what the 2019 Las Vegas Aces were supposed to look like.
One All-Star big erupts for 30-plus points, then the other pops up in a key moment to fuel a key stretch of their own.
Fans got a first look at that dynamic in a close game Saturday as the Aces got by the Indiana Fever, playing the back end of a back-to-back, in overtime. A’ja Wilson scored a career-high 39 points (14-20 FG, 11-14 FT) and Liz Cambage scored 12 points in overtime.
Cambage shot 1-of-9 in regulation and sat for the entire fourth quarter.
“I think I started the game aggressively and I wasn’t being rewarded—another night of me being hacked,” Cambage told reporters postgame. “And then it got in my head a bit, I sat out the fourth and had to come out in overtime to get it done.”
Aces head coach Bill Laimbeer rolled with Dearica Hamby (12 points, 10 rebounds) and Wilson for the entire fourth quarter.
“In regulation, it was easy,” he said. “I was going to run with Hamby. Liz wasn’t engaged at that point in the game and Hamby was a better defender on the court.
“We got in overtime and just rolled. I’ll always put Hamby in when we’re trying to switch for [3-pointers], but Liz gave us all of the offense in that overtime and that was phenomenal.”
Laimbeer noted that Kelsey Plum, currently going through her own offensive struggles (3-32 FG in her last five games), got into Cambage “in a good way” prior to the start of overtime, reminding the All-WNBA center how much the Aces needed her and how capable she was of dominating those five minutes.
Plum shot 1-of-7 on Saturday. Her lone make, a fourth-quarter 3-pointer, drew a vigorous fist pump from Laimbeer on the sidelines. He noted postgame that his confidence hasn’t wavered in the third-year guard.
“I ran the first play for her,” he said. “I ran the play for her to get the last shot of [regulation]. It was a good shot. It just didn’t go in. That happens. Something good will happen. She plays so hard.
“It’s hard in our team because we’re so post-dominant, that our guards aren’t gonna get many looks. When they do, sometimes out of rhythm. So they always have to be prepared. And she’s always prepared. Right now, they’re just not going in. It’s hard to describe. She knows that she has a role to play on this team and her shots will come.”
Jackie Young logged 30-plus minutes for the fourth time this season. She briefly left the game in the fourth but returned to start overtime after taking a shot to the lower body trying to slither around a screen. The 2019 No. 1 pick has tallied 19 assists against just two turnovers in her last two games.
“You’re not gonna see a great stat line offensive-wise for Jackie this season because that’s not what she’s counted upon doing for us,” Laimbeer said. “She feeds the post better than I’ve seen a lot of players—men or women. It’s just bullet passes in there on time to the right hand. And that’s what she’s very good at.”
2019 No. 3 overall pick Teaira McCowan was a big part of Cambage’s early frustrations. Cambage wasn’t getting calls, and McCowan was often the one challenging her around the basket.
“It was definitely a test for me to see where I am, and I think I have done pretty well,” McCowan told High Post Hoops postgame. “Physicality, that’s something I’ve adapted to. In college, they let us play physical, and here I expected nothing less. Battling in the post, I like it. It’s nothing I can’t handle.
“I just went out there and played solid defense and it worked.”
The Aces faced off with two of the up-and-coming true 5s in back-to-back games—2019 No. 7 overall pick Kalani Brown on Thursday in Los Angeles then McCowan on Saturday.
“Very young, very tough,” Cambage said of the two young bigs. “It’s just the start of their careers. Both are going to be so great.”
“She’s a really strong player,” Carolyn Swords said of McCowan. “Uses her height and length really well. Gets good position.”
“I think it’s great that Indiana has a big post player now,” Cambage added. “They’ve been missing that for a few years. They’re tougher now. To be great in this league, you need big post players, especially going against teams like us.”
The Cambage-Wilson duo, in some form, dominated a win from start to finish for the first time. Will that become more of the norm now that they have some games under their belts together, or will it just be a blip on the radar?
Laimbeer sees the positive in simply scrapping to piece together a win, something this group may not have pulled off earlier in the season.
“At a different time in a different place, whether it was last year or early in the season, we probably would have folded our tent and gone home a loser,” Laimbeer said. “That’s a good growing sign for us.”
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