The Connecticut Sun shocked the Las Vegas Aces in game one of the WNBA semifinals; Connecticut dominated Las Vegas in an 87-62 victory. Jasmine Thomas led the Sun with 31 points on 13-18 shooting from the field. Alyssa Thomas added 18, and Natisha Hiedeman scored 14 off the bench.
The Aces did not play well at all A’Ja Wilson led the way with 19 points, and Jackie Young had 17 points off the bench. Nobody else but those two played well. It looked like the physical style of play from Connecticut took the Aces out of their game. For Las Vegas to even the series on Tuesday, they will need to do these three things:
Rebound Better
Connecticut plays physical, so usually, they win the rebound battle. On Sunday, they won the rebound battle 39-29. The Aces must do a better job playing physical and boxing out to rebound better. They have good rebounders on the team, but its a matter of wanting to bang with Thomas and DeWanna Bonner in the paint. Wilson led Las Vegas with nine rebounds, but Carolyn Swords only had one, and Hamby had no rebounds in 23 minutes; that’s not good at all from your frontcourt.
Defense
The Sun shot 50% from the field and 42.1% from the three-point line; if you shoot those percentages, you will win. Las Vegas must do a better job of defending the perimeter. Thomas had a playoff career-high 31 points, and Hiedeman had 14 points off the bench, the Aces must defend those players better. But it will have to be one on one defense because you don’t want to put that much attention on Thomas and Heideman. After all, it would open things up for Bonner and Alyssa Thomas.
Be Better Offensively
The Aces offense needs to play better, Connecticut played fantastic defense, but Las Vegas did no perform well on offense. Angel McCoughtry scored six points on 1-8 shooting, Kayla McBride 4 points on 2-7 shooting, and Dearica Hamby added four points. The Aces depend on those three players along with Wilson to carry the offense. Look for all three of those players to be aggressive and bounce back in game two.
Las Vegas only shot 33.8 from the field and 7.1% from beyond the arc. You are not going to beat anybody with those numbers. The Aces need to come out with better ball movement and player movement to even up the series at one on Tuesday night.
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