The Minnesota Lynx have woken the sleeping giant. Back on Aug. 2, the Lynx defeated the Las Vegas Aces 111-58. It felt like a rock-bottom moment for the Aces, a team that had entered the season with title aspirations. How does a team come back from a loss that bad?
Turns out, that loss kick-started something for Vegas, as the team has now won seven in a row since, including wins over the Liberty and Mercury. This team isn't just beating up on a cupcake schedule. It appears to have actually turned (back) into a viable contender.
Aces just keeps winning after massive loss to Lynx
Alright, so do I actually believe that loss to Minnesota fundamentally changed the Aces and turned them from a fringe playoff contender into a title threat? No, not really, because the team had won five of its last seven games before that loss, and since July 12, the team has a total of one loss against teams that aren't Minnesota.
It wasn't that Minnesota loss that changed the fate of the Aces. It's pretty clear that the real driving force behind this run is the team's decision to move Jewell Loyd to the bench. Looking at her splits this season, Loyd actually averages more points as a reserve, with 14.6 points per game off the bench to just 10.4 per game as a starter. She's shooting 45.7 percent from the floor and 43.8 percent from 3-point range since the move to the bench, whereas she shot 36.3 percent from the floor and 35.4 percent from deep as a starter.
Jewell Loyd is looking more like herself
If you want a real reason why Vegas is so much better now, that's it. The team is letting Loyd come in and just fire away with the second unit, and it's worked out very well. Taking her out of the starting lineup solved what seemed to be an impossible issue for the team.
Loyd was actually the team's leading scorer in the Lynx loss, putting up 12 points on 50 percent shooting. She had the worst plus/minus on the team, but in a game like that, it's really hard to ascribe blame for the defeat based on plus/minus.
But hey — if the Aces simply keep winning, it's going to be funny for fans to say it's because that game served as a wake-up call. The truth is, Vegas already seemed to be turning a corner before that loss, and the blowout defeat against Minnesota was really just a (very, very, very) bad blip on the radar, one disastrous moment in what's actually been a really strong month for the team.