The Las Vegas Aces are enjoying a landmark season despite not being a particularly deep team.
The indefinite loss of Candace Parker to a foot injury hasn’t slowed down the Aces, who have won all seven games without the two-time league MVP, entering Tuesday night’s home game against the Atlanta Dream.
In the seven games without Parker, Las Vegas (23-2) is averaging 99.4 points per game and has topped 100 three times. The Aces have scored fewer than 97 points once during the stretch.
One of those performances was Sunday’s 104-91 home win over the Dallas Wings as starters Kelsey Plum (28 points), Chelsea Gray (27) and A’ja Wilson (22) combined for 77 points.
Teammate Alysha Clark provided a spark off the bench by scoring 12 points on 4-of-4 shooting from 3-point range. It was her seventh double-digit outing of the season.
Overall, the bench play is lacking and Las Vegas coach Becky Hammon doesn’t shy away from the topic.
“It is what it is,” Hammon told reporters. “Everybody deals with injuries and other off-court issues. For us, we just have a buckle-down, bunker mentality. We’ve got to get a little bit more. I’m constantly squeezing the rock trying to get another drop out of our players, our bench, everybody.”
Still, Las Vegas is vying to join the 1998 Houston Comets (27-3) as the only WNBA teams to win 90 percent of their regular-season games.
The Aces are also 12-0 at home as they face the Dream (14-11), who are 2-3 since registering a seven-game winning streak.
Atlanta is coming off Sunday’s 80-73 home win over the Washington Mystics. Allisha Gray matched her career high of 27 points for her eighth game of 20 or more this season.
Gray is in her first season with the Dream after spending six seasons with Dallas. The move is working out as she is averaging a career-high 18.2 points and shooting a career-best 48.9 percent from the field.
“None of that matters if we’re not winning games,” Gray told reporters last week. “I don’t care about how many points I score — end of the day, it’s all about the team.”
Las Vegas won the season’s first meeting, 92-87 on June 2 in Atlanta. Wilson scored 21 points for the Aces, while Cheyenne Parker scored a career-high 25 points to go with 11 rebounds for the Dream.
–Field Level Media
