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Michael Voepel
The Las Vegas Aces won their 14th game in a row Sunday — tying the fourth-longest winning streak in WNBA history — and center A’ja Wilson set a league record with her 13th game of 30 or more points.
After the Aces’ 80-66 victory over the Chicago Sky, Las Vegas coach Becky Hammon said she sometimes thinks she has run out of adjectives to describe Wilson. Then she opted for a descriptive comparison for Wilson, who could become the league’s first four-time MVP this year. Wilson, Minnesota’s Napheesa Collier and Phoenix’s Alyssa Thomas are the top contenders for the award.
Hammon said some players are more like gazelles because they are quick, nimble and agile. Others are more like lions because they physically dominate foes.
“She’s the only person in the gym, in the world, that is both lion and gazelle,” Hammon said. “She can dance around you, or she can eat you up. She’s just kind of an anomaly in the way she can impact a game … she does it on both ends.”
Wilson had 31 points, 11 rebounds, 4 steals and 3 blocks Sunday. It was her 10th game with both 30-plus points and 10-plus rebounds, breaking her own single-season record for such games, set this past season.
The WNBA season has expanded to 44 games this season; Sunday was Wilson’s 38th game as she has missed four because of injury for the 28-14 Aces.
Wilson’s current teammate Jewell Loyd, formerly with Seattle, and retired Minnesota star Maya Moore, who was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame on Saturday, previously held the record for 30-point games in a season with 12 each. Moore did that in 2014, when she appeared in 34 games for the Lynx, averaged 23.9 PPG and was league MVP. Loyd did in 2023, when she appeared in 38 games for the Storm and averaged 24.7 PPG.
Through Sunday’s game, Wilson is averaging a league-best 23.8 PPG and 10.1 rebounds, which is second in the WNBA to Chicago’s Angel Reese. Reese did not play Sunday as she was suspended by the team for the first half and was dealing with back issues in the second half.
Wilson also now has 85 blocks and 61 steals, the second season in a row she has reached 60 in both stats. The only other WNBA players who have had 60/60 seasons in those categories are retired former MVPs Lisa Leslie (in 2005 for Los Angeles) and Yolanda Griffith (in 2000 for Sacramento).
The Aces’ winning streak is tied with the Connecticut Sun, who won 14 in a row in 2021. With two games left in the regular season, the Aces could tie the 2014 Phoenix Mercury for the second-longest streak at 16.
Las Vegas hosts Chicago again Tuesday and finishes at Los Angeles on Thursday. The Aces remain in the running for the No. 2 seed in the playoffs; they are tied with Atlanta in second place. The Dream finish with two games against Connecticut: at home Monday and on the road Wednesday.
