I'm in a group chat with some other WNBA writers and one of them brought up an interesting fact today in regards to the Las Vegas Aces and their current 12 game winning streak. Of the nine previous teams to win 12 or more games in a row during the regular season, eight have advanced at least one round in the playoffs.
There were points this season where it looked like the Aces might not even make the playoffs. Jewell Loyd was shooting the ball so poorly inside the arc that you'd have been forgiven for thinking she was washed up. The supporting cast around A'ja Wilson just kept consistently letting her down.
But times have changed. Sparked by a move that sent Loyd to the bench, Vegas has 12 wins in a row and has moved all the way up to the No. 2 spot in the playoff standings. Aside from Minnesota, the rest of the league has failed to establish itself as a legit title threat, with the Lynx just running away with things. But, it finally appears that we have legitimate competition for Minnesota.
The Las Vegas Aces are for real
You don't accidentally win 12 games in a row. Only a really good basketball team can do that, and the Aces are a really good basketball team.
The team basically had the biggest wake-up call in sports history — yes, this is a bit of an exaggeration — when they lost 111-58 to the Lynx on Aug. 2. That loss represented a potential low point for this era of Aces basketball. A team that's won two titles recently and is led by arguably the best player in the world can't lose a game like that, especially at home.
But the Aces locked in after that and haven't lost since. Sure, it hasn't been the toughest schedule, but seven of those wins are against playoff teams, including a win over the No. 3 seed Atlanta Dream.
The obvious thing that's changed? Moving Loyd to the bench unlocked something huge. She shot 36.3 percent from the floor as a starter, but is shooting 41.8 percent as a reserve, including a 39.1 percent mark from deep. Somehow, a player known for inefficiency has become one of the league's most efficient long-range shooters. Maybe it's because the pressure of a bench role is different than the pressure of a starting role. You aren't responsible for going out there and making sure your team gets off to a good start. You just sub in when you sub in, and you focus on playing basketball.
Another key? The NaLyssa Smith trade. I was really, really low on that move at the time, as giving up a 2027 first-round pick for a player who had effectively washed out of her first two WNBA stops reeked of desperation. Honestly, it still feels that way since, at the time, it was that way, but Smith has locked in for Vegas and has become a very, very important part of this lineup. Playing beside Wilson has helped cover up some of Smith's defensive flaws, and she's saved her energy for the offensive end, where she's shooting 55.7 percent from the floor since joining Vegas. The trade shouldn't have worked for Vegas, but it did. Maybe we should have considered just how big an upgrade it would be to get Kiah Stokes out of the starting five.
And, well, A'ja Wilson remains A'ja Wilson. She's the best women's basketball player in the world. She's averaging 23.1 points and 10.1 rebounds per game. She's the league leader in blocks per game and ranks 10th in steals. She gets to the foul line better than anyone else. I could go on and on here, but I don't think much more needs to be said.
Am I still suspicious that a team starting Kierstan Bell can be a title threat? Yeah, sure! And the lack of viable bench bigs is a major concern should Smith get injured, since Stokes is a non-entity on offense, and Megan Gustafson is basically just playing mop-up duty in big wins. But outside of Minnesota, every contender has holes. Atlanta's offense feels like it's bound to eventually fail. Phoenix is led by Alyssa Thomas, who has never managed to get a team over the hump and actually win a title. New York has dealt with injury issues all year and has fallen all the way down to the No. 5 seed.
We're at a point where it's like ... okay, Vegas kind of has to be viewed as a threat by default. They're the second-best team right now, and anything can happen in a playoff series. It's wild that we've reached this point considering how the first three months of the season went, but the Aces are the biggest threat there is to Minnesota.