Las Vegas Aces shine bright in dismantling of Seattle Storm 96-80 (Free Edition)

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 eight or more.

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.

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.

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.

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 the three-point range.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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. 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.

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.

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 on Tuesday night 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.

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.

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, Tuesday’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).

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.

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