Aces await rematch with Mystics
By Ben Dull
Aces hold Sky to 10 fourth-quarter points, improve to 8-5
What have you done for me lately?
The Las Vegas Aces won four of their last five games heading into Friday’s rematch with the league-leading Washington Mystics, who beat them by 23 points on their home floor on June 20.
While we don’t know how Friday’s showdown will play out, we do know that the Aces have managed to piece together some close wins since then. Time spent on the floor building chemistry and growing in familiarity with one another is still the most precious commodity that acquired a new starting center just days before the start of the season.
Liz Cambage finished with 16 points, nine rebounds and seven assists on Tuesday, the latter being the most pleasing for Aces head coach and president of basketball operations Bill Laimbeer, as A’ja Wilson shot just 1-of-7 in 13 minutes in the first three quarters.
“[Cambage] can really pass,” he said postgame. “I told her and I told the team about a week or 10 days ago, they don’t know who I’m talking about or what I am talking about but I said I want her to be our Wilt Chamberlain.
“I want a younger version of an old Wilt Chamberlain because Wilt dominated so much for all those years and single handily just beat on people and they double and triple teamed him and he still scored 50 or 100. But at the end of his career, he went to the Lakers and led the league in assists. He was a great team player and won a championship, which Wilt didn’t win doing it by himself.
“I think Liz at this point in her career wants to win. She’s an outstanding passer, we know she can score and rebound so we need everything that she’s got.”
The Aces have leaned on Cambage and Wilson as facilitators from the elbow or the top of the key. One action that has become a favorite uses a shooter to back screen for one while the other feeds the open player.
It’s a tough action to defend, something Sky guard Allie Quigley pointed to postgame.
“We gave them too many points in the paint,” she said. “It seemed like they were getting lay-ups at the end and we were missing jumpers. We had to many defensive miscues on back screens and plays that we knew they were going to run.”
Do you switch? That leaves a guard stuck on Wilson or Cambage inside without another big available to help out. Use the guard’s defender to jam up the action and that shooter will pop out for an open triple.
After Wilson tied the game at 80 with 5:21 to play, misses began piling up—six missed jumpers and two turnovers across the next nine possessions, to be exact—for the Sky, broken up by one trip to the free throw line for Diamond DeShields.
“It’s about execution,” Sky head coach and general manager James Wade said. “It was more about the defense than offense. I think our ability to not execute defensively, not being able to put them in uncomfortable spots, affected on offense. It’s going to come down to executing in the last five minutes, setting screens, taking care of the ball, and not having defensive miscues. We weren’t good in those things.”
Wilson and Dearica Hamby scored twice apiece as the Aces closed on a 10-2 run. Cambage assisted two of those buckets and added a jumper of her own from the post.
Laimbeer played all three bigs together for the fourth time this season. The seven-plus minute fourth-quarter stretch was the longest they’ve played together. They did not log any time together in the first matchup with Washington, perhaps something to look for on Friday.
What exactly has clicked for the Aces, though, in the four wins since the Washington loss in Laimbeer’s eyes?
“Winning,” he quipped. “A combination of things. Somedays its defense, today was offense in the first half that kept us in the game. Last game against Indiana, it was a combination of both. We are learning we are coming together we are more confident in who we are. You saw passes thrown today by Liz or A’ja or somebody else—that is a sign of growth. We know each other better.
“They spanked us here last time and we are conscious of that,” he added. “So we’re going to prepare for them the next two days and throw the ball up and see what happens.”
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