The Dallas Wings (11-6) are looking to go 3-for-3 against the defending champs on Thursday when they travel to meet the Las Vegas Aces (12-5) at Michelob Ultra Arena.
The Wings’ first win over the Aces, 95-87 on May 28 at College Park Center, was an eyebrow raiser. Dallas put together the game’s decisive runs in the third and fourth quarters and limited defending WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson to 10-of-24 shooting from the field. Jessica Shepard put together the biggest, stat-stuffingest triple-double the W has
ever seen, finishing with 22 points, 20 rebounds and 10 assists on the way to her first of two Western Conference Player of the Week nods Shepard has earned so far this season.
That first win may have grabbed some attention, but the Wings’ second win over the Aces dropped jaws — reverberating through hoops discourse. Dallas blew the doors off of Las Vegas, 96-66, little more than two weeks later. This time, the Wings’ defense held Wilson to just 18 points. This time the Wings grabbed control of the game with a devastating 23-6 second-quarter run and never looked back.
Can they do it again — this time on the road? The Wings haven’t beaten the Aces away from home since June 27, 2018. Here are three keys to getting it done.
Spotlight on Shepard
Shepard has had a massive impact on both of the Wings’ wins over the Aces. She became the first player in WNBA history to record a 22-20-10 game in the teams’ first matchup, and she was just one assist shy of another triple-double in Dallas second win over Las Vegas. She finished with 15 points, 15 rebounds and nine dimes in that one — another bona fide box score stuffer. Part of the equation for beating the defending champs seems to be a big night from Shepard.
Both of her big games against the Aces have factored into her two Western Conference Player of the Week nods. She won the first on June 2 and then the second on June 17. Shepard is averaging 14.1 points, 11.1 rebounds and 5.6 assists per game this season. She sits in sixth in All-Star votes (477,066) after two rounds of fan vote returns.
The thing about Shepard’s big games is that her impact is felt on both ends of the court, in every aspect of the game. She’s scoring, but she’s not a ball-stopper. She’s finishing in transition, bailing teammates out at the end of the shot clock and extending possessions by grabbing offensive rebounds. She’s playing great defense without fouling. She’s making winning plays wherever they present themself.
The A’ja Wilson Brigade
Shepard is also a member of the Wings’ A’ja Wilson brigade. Shepard, Awak Kuier and Alanna Smith, who is listed as out for the Wings’ third go-round with the Aces, have all done their part to help limit the Wilson’s offensive production in Dallas’ two wins over Vegas.
Shepard has a knack for bothering Wilson more than being a one-on-one stopper, because when you’re dealing with Wilson, no one is really a one-on-one stopper. She finds ways to break down most any defense, but Wilson hasn’t yet cracked Dallas’ code this year, after torching the Wings for 37 and 10, then 34 and eight in two of last season’s three games.
Kuier has the best build on the Wings’ roster to both stay in front of Wilson with her athleticism and give up as little ground as possible in the post with her size. But it has taken a village to keep Wilson from being a game-breaker in both the Wings’ first two wins over the Aces, and now that village is a little bit smaller with Smith in concussion protocol. Li Yueru, who has had a couple of really key performances off the bench recently, will no doubt be called on to play heavier minutes against the Aces, though she is perhaps a better fit to defend sheer size, as in the case of Chicago Sky center Kamila Cardoso, than she is to help limit someone with Wilson’s athleticism.
Team defense is the difference
The Wings have only played three games since taking the Aces to the woodshed on June 15. They have given up 91, 92 and 96 points in regulation in those three games. They lost one of those and only won the other two after incredible comebacks late in each.
The defensive principles that guided the Wings to a 30-point blowout win over the second-place team in the West have suddenly gone out the window for Dallas. Their last three opponents are shooting 48.1% from the field and 41.6% from 3-point range against the Wings.
When the Wings play an A-game on both ends of the floor, as they did on June 15 in that 96-66 beatdown, there are few, if any, teams that can run with them right now. If they let up defensively, they are prone to the frenetic and dramatic finishes we’ve seen in the Wings’ last two games, which have come against opponents with a combined record of 8-27.
Team defense is the difference. Holding opponents to one shot on offense is a huge part of that. If the Wings can check those boxes on Thursday, they can check a box they haven’t checked since 2018 — a season sweep of the Aces.
