Aces, Sky take aim at semifinals berth
LAS VEGAS—It didn’t have to be this way.
The Las Vegas Aces are subject to single-elimination postseason play as they host the Chicago Sky on Sunday in the second round of the WNBA Playoffs.
The Aces lost four of five down the stretch before wrapping up the regular season with a win in Phoenix last weekend. Just a few short weeks ago, they kicked off a three-game road swing in Connecticut with a chance to lock up a tiebreaker with the Sun along with the inside track for a double-bye into the semifinals.
No looking back now. Just one game stands between the Aces and an appearance in a best-of-five series.
“We’d like to see a playoff series,” Aces head coach and president of basketball operations Bill Laimbeer said after a recent practice. “Not so much to look at them, but so our players can experience it. In a one-game shoot, anything can happen. When you get in the playoffs, you can make adjustments and they understand from game to game. That’s ultimately—our goal is to get into a series.”
The No. 2-seeded Sun or the top-seeded Washington Mystics await.
Laimbeer’s team will need to lean on the same ingredients that got them here: the league’s top-ranked defense and stars that can carry them home in close games.
He intends to stick with the late-season lineup change that introduced veteran wing Tamera Young into the starting lineup in place of third-year guard Kelsey Plum. Young signed with the club as a free agent prior to the start of last season, the franchise’s first in Las Vegas.
“It’s definitely exciting,” Young said. “When I signed here, I knew talking to Bill that the team would be super young … We know what we’re capable of if we bring it. The expectations? Bill used to always talk about three years to work with what he has, but we have an opportunity now. We’ve gotta make the most of it. It’s super exciting in that aspect.”
The Aces allowed just 95.0 points per 100 possessions during the regular season but slipped to 103.5 in their final 11 regular-season games per WNBA.com. The 2019 WNBA All-Defense teams, selected by the coaches, did not include a single member of the Aces.
“I don’t know,” Laimbeer said when asked if one individual performer stood out from his group. “I thought about that. We’re a team defense group, not so much in individual standouts. It’s kind of a compliment to our team that nobody made it and we’re the best defensive team.”
His move to plug Young into the starting lineup gives them a great deal of size and length all over the floor. Liz Cambage anchors them with her presence at the rim and on the glass, where they led the league with a 73.1 defensive rebounding percentage.
“When she’s engaged, she’s a really solid defender,” Laimbeer said. “She’s more mobile this year than she was last year. That helps us. She’s getting used to defensive schemes better than she did in the early part of the year.”
Having A’ja Wilson as a second rim protector helps, too, but most matchups require at least one of the Aces’ bigs to corral and run out to stretch bigs stationed beyond the 3-point line.
“She’s learning,” Laimbeer added. “She’s better this year than she was last year. Smarter basketball player defensive-wise this year. She’s always been a good defender. She cares. That’s part of the battle with defense.”
In addition to that shot-blocking and rebounding presence inside, Young joins Kayla McBride and Jackie Young on the perimeter—three like-sized wings that make them more versatile and shrink the floor even more for their opponents.
“I think it helps with the way we have our defensive scheme set up,” Tamera Young said. “With us being big guards, that makes us versatile where we can switch more on different plays. I think it helps because a lot of times when you have smaller guards and you’re trying to switch with a bigger guard, other teams wanna post you up and try to make a mismatch.”
More minutes with those three on the floor together can make life tougher for Sky All-Star guard Diamond DeShields, one of the league’s most explosive off-the-bounce creators.
But what will happen on the other end of the floor? McBride is one of the league’s biggest threats from the outside. Opponents don’t pay as much attention to Tamera Young (5-of-16 3PT) and Jackie Young (14-of-44 3PT) when the ball gets thrown inside to Wilson or Cambage.
“We play an inside-out game,” Tamera Young said. “We’ve got two of, arguably, the best post players in the world on our team, so you want to get the ball inside. It’s about making those reads—them knowing when they have two or three people on them and for us to cut, spot up and get to our spots. It’s just about the chemistry and knowing each other.”
All things considered, Laimbeer has several intriguing options to get more shooting on the floor. The offense has really hummed this season when Plum finds a groove with her pull-up shooting. Sugar Rodgers and late-season signee Epiphanny Prince can open up the lane as well and have 32 games of combined playoff experience.
The Sky present an interesting challenge. Their bigs are very opportunistic, facilitating and spotting up from beyond the arc, picking their spots to crash the offensive glass and ducking in to establish deep position with four teammates spacing the floor around them.
The Aces won two of three regular-season meetings between the two teams. Chicago eked out an 87-84 win in Las Vegas on August 9 while Wilson (ankle) was still sidelined. Starting power forward Jantel Lavender went down in that game with what was later deemed a season-ending foot injury and starting center Stefanie Dolson was limited to 27 minutes due to foul trouble.
The Sky were plus-nine (31 to 22) in free throw attempts while the Aces were plus-12 (19 to 7) on the offensive glass.
The Aces were held to just one offensive rebound in the July 2 home win as the team shot 53.7 percent and five players scored 14 points or more.
They finished about even in both categories on August 18, but 10 of Chicago’s 31 free throw attempts came in the final five minutes once the Aces had pulled back ahead by double digits.
Dolson played just 10 minutes in that one, lasting less than three minutes to start the first, third and fourth quarters before being whistled for her second, fourth and fifth fouls of the day. (She logged 4:20 in the second before picking up her third.)
Astou Ndour joined Dolson in the starting lineup once Lavender went down. She’s a capable 3-point shooter and may have enough length to bother Wilson’s shot inside.
DeShields will punish the Aces all afternoon if they fail to get back in transition, seen in Chicago’s first-round win over the Mercury.
Plum’s defensive improvement has been touted all season. If she’s making shots, she may prove to be the better matchup on one of Courtney Vandersloot or Allie Quigley. Vandersloot is always probing in the pick and roll, and Quigley is a tough cover darting around screens.
Finally, how will Laimbeer manage Dearica Hamby‘s minutes? Will he trot out his big lineup with her at the 3? If not, finding even 20 minutes for the Sixth Woman of the Year will be tough if Cambage and Wilson stay out of foul trouble.
Chipping away inside playing through those two has been the team’s biggest strength all season. They’ve been two of the league’s top performers late in games, too. Per WNBA.com, Wilson ranks first in clutch scoring (58) and made field goals (22) on 71 percent shooting (22-of-31). Cambage is third in scoring (49) and second in makes (20) on 58.8 percent shooting (20-of-34).
Either team would be a formidable opponent for Connecticut or Washington. With a win by the Storm on the other side of the bracket, Sunday’s winner in Las Vegas will advance to face the Sun. If the Sparks come away with a victory, the Chicago-Las Vegas winner will take on the Mystics.
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