The No. 2 seed Las Vegas Aces begin their quest to a championship on Tuesday, Sept 28 at the Michelob Ultra Arena as they take on the visiting Phoenix Mercury.
The series will not be easy as they will be taking on a team who has already won two playoff games to get to the semifinals and have a ton of playoff experience on their roster.
These two teams played three times during the season and the Aces took two out of the three games. The most recent game between the two was the season finale in Phoenix where the Aces got a 84-83 hard fought victory.
The playoffs are a whole different type of game though as the games will be more physical and more intense, making the series challenging.
Challenge the Mercury Pose for the Aces
First off for the Mercury will pose some tough challenges for the Aces if their big three shows up like they did in the game vs Seattle in the previous round.
The deadly big three of Skylar Diggins Smith, Britney Griner and Dianna Taurasi combined for 57 points out of their 85 in their last win.
The focus though will be shutting down Diggins-Smith and Griner as both have given the Aces trouble this season while Taurasi has yet to play the Aces this year.
Griner will be a tough cover for the Aces as she has torched the team this season averaging 22 points per game and eight rebounds per game against them this season. As for Diggins-Smith she has averaged 20 points per game and eight and a half assists per game.
Another huge storyline in this series will be the health of Taurasi as she reinjured the ankle in the last playoff game.
In addition to that another player to look out for that the Aces will have to watch is Sophie Cunningham who can catch fire at any time and scored 21 points with six 3-pointers in their first playoff win vs New York.
Challenges the Aces Pose for the Mercury
Even with the challenges posed by Mercury, Las Vegas provide a resilient battle during this series. The Aces present a strong offense and defense, concluding the season with the second ranked defense and the highest points per game total (89.3) in the league.
Las Vegas finished with the second highest 3-point shooting percentage (37.5) as a team, the most rebounds per game (38.7) and the lowest number of turnovers per game (11.8).
The Aces broke the record for most players averaging double figures on a team with seven this year compared to five.
There are some key players to watch in this series for the Aces and those players will be Kelsey Plum, Dearica Hamby, A’ja Wilson and Chelsea Gray.
Kelsey Plum and Dearica Hamby are the Aces energy players who will be key to watch as they are the two highest scoring bench players in the league.
A’ja Wilson will be another key player to watch as she is last year’s WNBA MVP, and she is averaging 16 points per game vs the Mercury this season.
Chelsea Gray is the only Aces player on the roster with a ring and is also no stranger to hitting big shots late in games.
Key Matchups to Watch
One of the main matchups will be Wilson vs Brianna Turner who will be guarding her the whole series. Wilson is coming into this series averaging 18.3 points per game, but will be going up against Turner, who was just named to the WNBA All-Defensive First Team.
In the first two rounds Griner did not face a big that can match up without her on one, so she faced a lot of double teams. She will be going against Liz Cambage who rarely sees a center that can match up with her so this will be a tough matchup for both players.
With both teams having a hard-fought mindset with no will to back down, the series has the potential to go five games.
The Aces will be looking to win the first championship in franchise history this season after coming up short in last year’s finals.
Make sure to tune in to game one of this series on Sept. 28, at 7 p.m. PST on ESPN. To watch the game live and in-person, the two teams will face off at the Michelob Ultra Arena inside of Mandalay Bay.
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