The regular season of the most successful year in WNBA history comes to a close on Thursday and will give way to the postseason on Sunday. To say this season in the W has been historic would be an understatement, akin to saying it's been a little hot lately in Arizona. Attendance, viewership and revenues have been at all-time highs and there's seemingly a new record on the court being broken every night lately.
Highlighting those on-the-court records set was A'ja Wilson becoming the first player in WNBA history to score one-thousand points in a season. As Wilson was still receiving her flowers for her amazing scoring feat, she went out the next game and surpassed rookie Angel Reese's single-season total rebounds record. After setting two records in a few days and on the way to a very likely third MVP honor one would think there was nothing else the Aces star could achieve before leading her team in search for a third championship title in a row. There is one more accomplishment Wilson can achieve at Michelob Ultra Arena on Thursday, though.
The Aces can move up to the number three seed with a win against the Dallas Wings and a Connecticut Sun loss to the Chicago Sky. Both teams would end the season with identical 27-13 records, but Las Vegas holds the tiebreaker over the Sun after sweeping them during the regular season. If that's something Becky Hammon feels is important enough then A'ja and the starters will take the court and play some meaningful minutes in the regular season finale and Wilson could climb the ranks of the league's all-time leaders.
Wilson's ninety-eight blocks this season set a career high, besting her previous single-season high by nine set just last season. For her career, Wilson's 441 blocks are 12th on the WNBA all-time list. If Thursday's game against the Wings turns out to be a block party for A'ja, she could leapfrog both Taj McWilliams-Franklin (443 blocks) and Elizabeth Williams (444 blocks) and end the season as the tenth all-time leader in career blocks. The Las Vegas star isn't the only marquee player who can move up the all-time stats list in the league in the final game of the season. She's also not the only Aces player who can do so.
Who else can move up WNBA all-time leaderboard on Thursday?
Let's take a look at who else can climb up the ranks of the all-time stats leaders in the W.
Aces point guard Chelsea Gray needs just four dimes to pass WNBA legend Candace Parker (1634) to move into seventh all-time in assists.
Sun veteran forward Dewanna Bonner, who throughout the course of the season jumped from the seventh to fourth leading scorer of all-time, needs just eight rebounds against the Sky to pass Tina Thompson (3070) for eighth all-time in total rebounds.
If the Seattle Storm's Nneka Ogwumike can build on her career high sixty-nine steals in a season she can pass Delisha Milton-Jones (619) for tenth on the all-time list. A super aggressive game on defense to end the regular season could also find Ogwumike passing Katie Douglas (623) for ninth on the all-time list in steals.