Las Vegas Aces shine bright in dismantling of Seattle Storm 96-80
Turnabout is fair play as Las Vegas comes to Seattle and crushes the Storm
(Everett, WA) - The Las Vegas Aces got their revenge against the Seattle Storm as they led wire-to-wire and finished the game with a resounding victory over the defending champs by a final score of 96-80.
Jackie Young dominated Seattle’s smaller guards scoring a career-high 21 points. Young also had a double-double with 10 rebounds. But it wasn’t just Jackie Young that did damage to the Storm. Las Vegas had all five starters score in double figures, six players total and seven players scored 8 or more points.
Young spoke after the game about her performance.
“I think we were just talking about that from the beginning, just to come out aggressive with just playing our game. We knew that we needed to get to the free throw line and just wanted to be able to play our game, play in transition, and things like that. I was just trying to get to my spots on the floor and just be very aggressive from the start. I know my teammates have confidence in me and they trusted me. I just have to have that same confidence in myself. I just have to have an aggressive mentality on the floor. I mean, no matter who we're playing against, I'm just trying to go out there and be aggressive” Young said.
A’ja Wilson played just like the MVP she is, scoring 18 points, pulling down 11 rebounds, while also dishing out five assists and getting it done on the defensive end with three blocked shots.
Liz Cambage was absolutely dominant in the low post. There’s a reason why she owns the all-time WNBA scoring record in a single game (53 points). She is basically unguardable when she gets within five feet of the basket. Cambage finished the game with 18 points, eight rebounds, and three blocks of her own.
Coach Bill Laimbeer spoke about his Center’s performance after the game.
“She’s the biggest player by far, and very skilled. It was clear that [Seattle] changed their lineup and they made substitutions based upon when Liz came in the game. So that's a big positive for any team like ourselves that we can dictate their substitution rotations based upon ours. That's great for a coach to have that in his back pocket and Liz was very engaged offensively in the second half especially. She was after the ball and she finished with a high-efficiency rate. Not like the first game where she was too tentative, but today she was very aggressive and attacking the rim. On defense, I thought she challenged a lot of shots and she knew where her rotations were today.” Laimbeer said.
Beyond that, Chelsea Gray had 11 points and a game-high seven assists. Riquna Williams pitched in with 10 points including two three-pointers. And Kelsey Plum gave the Aces a spark off the bench knocking down two triples as well and adding 10 points for her team.
The Aces shot 54% (37-69) from the floor and even made 40% (6-15) of their threes in this game. They also got to the foul line for 18 shots knocking down 16 of them (89%). Most of that was Jackie Young, who went 10-10 from the foul line in this game.
Meanwhile, Seattle got 26 points, 11 rebounds, and two blocked shots from Breanna Stewart who had her second double-double in as many games this season. And while Stewie didn’t have a poor shooting night (10-21 for 48%). She did shoot just 2-7 (29%) from beyond the arc.
Jewell Loyd was the team’s next leading scorer with 17 points. But she did not have a very efficient scoring night shooting 6-18 (33%) from the floor. She did have a much better 2nd half after scoring just two points in the first half and going 1-8 from the floor through the first two quarters.
In her first career start, Ezi Magbegor had a nice game with 14 points and 13 rebounds. She also had the toughest defensive assignment of the night trying to keep Liz Cambage from putting up 50 points. Unfortunately, Magbegor was not able to really slow Cambage down at all in this game after doing a very solid job on her in the first game of the season (also against Las Vegas). Cambage shot 8-10 (80%) from the floor and one of her misses was a three-pointer. Basically, anytime Liz Cambage wanted to score, she did. Seattle could have really used Mercedes Russell in this game.
Katie Lou Samuelson also had one of the best games of her WNBA career, scoring 13 points on 5-7 (71%) field goal shooting. Katie Lou also had the best plus/minus rating of any player on the court for Seattle with a +11.
Coach Hughes talked about Samuelson’s performance after the game.
“She hasn't been here that long. And she's developing a knowledge of how we play and her teammates. I thought in a situation we found her on Saturday she was good then too, because she really had been here a couple of days and we put her in a position to start the game. And, you know, I think she kind of showed up. She's going to fit in with us in situations. We just need a little time to move her and this team along together” Coach Hughes said.
Sadly, that will have to wait a bit as Samuelson now heads to Austria to take part in the Team USA 3x3 Olympic qualifiers (along with Kelsey Plum, Stefanie Dolson, and Allisha Gray). Samuelson will be gone from the team for a couple of weeks and will return the first week of June.
Seattle shot poorly as a team in this game and that was a huge reason why the Aces came out on top. The Storm were just 32-76 (42%) from the floor, including just 7-25 (28%) from three-point range.
Aces’ coach Bill Laimbeer talked about how improved defense was a huge emphasis between game one and two.
“Over the last couple days that really was the emphasis—to get off to a good start, but specifically limiting them. Defense was our biggest concern after game one. And we talked about it as coaches. We showed them at practice some of the schemes we wanted to run against Seattle. We still came in to shoot around today not knowing if it was going to work because we don't know each other very well. It's important to know when to do some of the things that we're going to do, but they did a really good job today. We had our moments, especially in the third quarter, where they took advantage of this a little bit and they played harder than us. But I think overall, we're going to be a work in progress. I think we're going to be an okay defensive team in the long run. Right now, we're still trying to scratch it out.”
Game Breakdown
It was Déjà vu all over again as the Las Vegas Aces got out to a massive lead early in this game just as they did on Saturday. The Aces led 10-2 early and had full intention of getting Liz Cambage involved in the low post right out of the gate.
Katie Lou Samuelson made a nice mid-range jumper and Breanna Stewart followed that up with a three-pointer to cut the Aces’ lead to five at 14-9.
Both Chelsea Gray and Jackie Young were very aggressive in the opening quarter attacking the basket and drawing fouls. In total, the Las Vegas Aces had nine free throws in the opening quarter and knocked down all nine of them.
Seattle looked out of sync again in this first quarter. The team committed five turnovers.
The Storm shot under 38% from the floor on 6-16 FG shooting. Meanwhile, Vegas shot the ball extremely effectively at 59%. The Aces just had more energy, they were more aggressive, making their cuts, driving to the basket, getting blocks on defense, etc.
The Aces backcourt were the stars of the opening quarter with Jackie Young leading the team with eight points and Chelsea Gray chipping in seven. A’ja Wilson had five points and Liz Cambage added four more.
Seattle was led by the seven points of Breanna Stewart and the five points of Katie Lou Samuelson. The problem is that the rest of the team only had two more points for the entire quarter.
The Aces stream rolled the Storm in the first quarter outscoring the home team 31-14.
In the 2nd quarter, both teams were a little more evenly matched. But Seattle wasn’t able to cut into the Aces lead much at all. Seattle continued their poor shooting effort, but they did limit Vegas somewhat; mostly, because the Aces only had two free throw attempts in the 2nd quarter after having nine in the first.
If you’re an optimist, there were some bright spots in the opening half even though the game itself was very ugly from Seattle’s perspective. The first was that Katie Lou Samuelson looked much more comfortable out there and was actually more aggressive in looking for her shot. She seemed real passive in Game 1, but on Tuesday night she actually looked to score. And she did a great job of that. Lou scored eight points on 3-4 FG shooting in the first half.
Katie Lou Samuelson gave her thoughts after the game.
“Between this game and Saturday, they seemed like polar opposites in a way. We really needed to come out with more energy throughout the whole entire game. We had some lows there and we have to bring the energy every single night because you know this is a really good team. They're going to come out and play super hard. Every night we’re going to be challenged. I thought a big difference in this game was the perimeter players and backcourt. I thought they did a lot of damage, kind of what were they doing so well and what made them difficult to defend. They were hitting some tough shots from the outside today. They adjusted their game plan to come at us and we should have done a better job of adjusting during the game. I think that's something that we'll get better at and learn to develop over time this season.”
Ezi Magbegor scored the team’s final six points of the first half. Magbegor finished the first half with eight points and seven rebounds.
Seattle outscored Las Vegas by just three points in the second, so the Aces were able to carry a 14 points lead to the half at 45-31. Seattle shot under 36% (14-39 FG) and just 3-13 (23%) from beyond the arc. Seattle uses the three-ball to beat a lot of teams in the WNBA, so when it’s not falling, they’re going to struggle. Especially when they go up against the bruiserweights from Las Vegas.
The big story of the first half was that the Aces backcourt of Chelsea Gray and Jackie Young combined for 19 points in the first half. While Seattle’s starting backcourt of Jewell Loyd and Sue Bird combined for just two points.
Jewell Loyd scored the team’s first eight points of the third quarter after scoring just two in the first half. It briefly allowed Seattle to cut Las Vegas’ lead to single digits at 45-37.
Seattle needed a big quarter to get back in this game and that’s exactly what they got in the third period. The Storm outscored the Aces by ten, 31-21. Seattle did a good job of being more aggressive. They were able to draw more fouls and knock down some threes.
The third period ended on an incredible shot by Katie Lou Samuelson who drained a three from just a few steps past midcourt. Easily, the best highlight of the night from the Storm.
Vegas stomped out any chance of a Seattle comeback by scoring the first seven points of the 4th quarter. Over the first four minutes, Las Vegas outscored Seattle 15-4. Liz Cambage and A’ja Wilson did a lot of the damage in the low post. But Kelsey Plum made some nice plays as well.
Coach Hughes talked about how the team expended most of their energy in the 2nd and 3rd quarters to rally for the large deficit and just ran out of gas in the 4th quarter.
Similar to the first quarter, Las Vegas dominated the fourth quarter with both their inside presence and their perimeter shooting. The Aces outscored Seattle 30-18 in the final frame to win a commanding 96-80 victory over Seattle.
Both teams probably got what they wanted out of the two-game series which was a split 1-1. In the first game, Seattle looked like the better team (after a rocky 1st quarter), by knocking down their outside shots, making the extra pass for beautiful ball movement, and strong performances from Jewell Loyd and Breanna Stewart. But in game 2, the Aces did everything they wanted to do. They dominated the low-post with Cambage and Wilson, they outrebounded Seattle (39-34), and their guards played significantly better.
Both coaches gave their summaries after the game was over.
“The difference in the game today, no question, was our defensive effort. We were very active on defense. [On Saturday] we missed a lot of assignments and we had a couple of days of practice to iron that out, but we still have a long way to go. We're still learning each other, but I think overall, our activeness on defense set the tone for this game. We got off to a good start. We used Liz [Cambage] when we needed to use Liz and then we shared the ball really well. Jackie [Young] came and played an outstanding basketball game both offensively and defensively, but overall it was a team effort. You know that's what we're going to be this year. There's going to be a team effort I think across the board. Chelsea Gray made some big shots, chose what she could do, but it’s still going to be a work in process. My biggest fear was going 0-and-8. Overall, we'll take this win. It's a quality win against a quality team.” Coach Laimbeer stated.
“I thought the middle quarters we really expended a lot of energy. I thought we had some good moments in that regard. We were down 17 or something like that In the first quarter. I have to give them credit. I thought Vegas played well. I thought they were able to get a balance in scoring along with their post game, so they did a lot of things well. But we had trouble, you know. They went to the foul line repeatedly in those situations and I thought we didn't come out with the same kind of attack energy that you saw in the second and third quarters. And they came out very physical very strong and put us on our heels a little bit.” Coach Hughes on the disappointing performance Tuesday night.
Additional Analysis
Las Vegas is a really good team. There’s a reason why they are the top choice by most outlets to win the WNBA Championship this season. The loss of Angel McCoughtry to another ACL injury certainly hurts them (just imagine how good they’d be if she was healthy). That was pretty evident in the Game 1 matchup against Seattle where Vegas just did not have enough firepower to compete with Seattle with the Storm making so many threes. But if they can get contributions from Jackie Young, Chelsea Gray, Kelsey Plum, and Riquna Williams like they did tonight. They’re going to be nearly impossible to beat, especially when you know both Liz Cambage and A’ja Wilson are going to give you 15-20 points minimum each night.
With all that said, this was a really poor game from Seattle. Give credit where it’s due to Las Vegas, but Seattle did not play Storm basketball like we’re used to seeing. They were completely flat out of the gate and so many of the players struggled in this game. Their defensive effort was severely lacking as well.
Sue Bird and Jewell Loyd combined for just two points in the first half. Sue Bird didn’t score at all in this game. Jordin Canada, who normally brings a lot of energy off the bench, seemed to be a bit out of sync as well. Canada played just 15 minutes, went 2-6 from the field including 0-2 from beyond the arc. Canada has become a very good playmaker for the Storm over the past few years, but she only had one assist in this game. Plus/minus isn’t 100% directly related to just a single player on the court, but Canada had a -25 for this game, which meant the team really struggled while she was out on the floor.
Candice Dupree and Stephanie Talbot who had very solid games in Game 1 against Las Vegas did not look sharp on Tuesday night. Dupree was moved to the bench in this game because they needed the size of Magbegor to combat Liz Cambage. But when Dupree came in she was just flat. She seemed a step slow and was not nearly as effective in scoring as in Game 1 where she had 12 points. On Tuesday night, Dupree shot just 1-4 from the floor for two points in 15 minutes. She was a bit of a liability on the defensive end as well.
Talbot played slightly better collecting four rebounds (the most of any bench player) and dishing out two assists but also scored just two points on 1-2. Talbot also had a game-worse -27 in plus/minus. Similar to Canada, that number can’t be squarely blamed on Talbot. But for whatever reason, the bench just did not bring a lot of energy or effort in this game. Frankly, Vegas just seemed hungrier as a team and the Aces just completely outplayed Seattle all around.
Jackie Young is such an interesting player for the Las Vegas Aces. In a lot of ways, she’s been a disappointment for the Aces as a former number one overall pick of the 2019 WNBA Draft. However, today’s game definitely showed off her potential that the Aces saw in her when they took her number one. Young has good size (6’ 0”) and strength for a guard. She dominated Seattle in that first quarter and went to work anytime Sue Bird was trying to guard her. Similar to the way Alysha Clark used to bully smaller guards in the post, Young would drive into the paint and rise up above the smaller defenders on her (usually Bird). She also was able to initiate contact and got to the foul line for 10 shots (8 in the first quarter alone).
Breanna Stewart touched on that during the post-game press conference.
“I mean, right from the beginning of the game (Young) was aggressive. She got to the free throw line I think eight times in the first quarter. And she was being the aggressor. Understanding in this league, you got to understand how teams are going to play you. And I think that as a young player she's figuring it out and then she had a great night tonight” Stewart added.
Young really is a player that Bill Laimbeer must love. Or at least love the potential that is there. Because he’s all about that bully ball. Using physical size and strength to dominate smaller players whether it’s coming from his posts or his guards.
Oh, and speaking of Alysha Clark. This is the first game that her absence was really noticeable. Yes, I realize the team has only played two games in the 2021 season. But frankly, after game one it didn’t really look like the team missed AC. Of course, I’m sure they miss her. But I thought Jewell Loyd, Stephanie Talbot, and Jordin Canada all did a good job of guarding the opposing team’s guards and perimeter players in the first game against Las Vegas. But that simply wasn’t the case on Tuesday night. The Aces’ guards and wings combined to score 52 points in this game. Seattle couldn’t stop any of them.
With all of this being said, this is just one game of 32 this season. On Saturday, the 2021 Storm team looked like they were destined to repeat as champions. On Tuesday, the Aces looked like the far superior team and Seattle is the one that needs a ton of work to improve. Ultimately, we’ll know a lot more about this team after 5-10 games. Not just one or two.
Up Next
The Storm head out on the road to face the Minnesota Lynx (0-2) in Minnesota on Thursday evening. The game will be at 5:00 PM local time. The Lynx are off to a slow start but are also currently missing Napheesa Collier who was finishing up overseas commitments. To my knowledge, Collier will not be available for Thursday’s game but that could change come gametime. However, there’s good news for Seattle, it sounds like Epiphanny Prince and Mercedes Russell will finally be back with the team. It’ll be interesting to see what changes in the rotation come about with those two players joining Seattle. Katie Lou Samuelson’s contract is likely to be suspended while she’s off participating in the Team USA 3x3 qualifiers, so the Storm shouldn’t need to cut another player until Lou gets back in late May/early June.
Editors Notes: First and foremost, thanks for all of your support! Second, I’ve decided to split up my articles a little bit more moving forward which should allow me to focus more specifically on the Storm game at hand. I’ve decided to remove the “Around the W” sections from my game recaps. However, I think it’s good for fans to know what’s going on with other teams, so I plan to do a separate “Around the W” article at least once a week moving forward to cover the biggest games and outcomes happening each week. Photo Credit: Seattle Storm