The No. 2-seed Las Vegas Aces ended the regular season on a 16-game winning streak, and they\u2019ll take that momentum with them into Game 1 of their first-round series against the No. 7-seed Seattle Storm (10 p.m. ET, ESPN).<\/p>\n
As the hottest team in the WNBA led by MVP candidate A\u2019ja Wilson, the Aces will be heavy favorites in this series. However, those are just assumptions and the games will decide the final result.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what each team needs to do to take care of business in Game 1:<\/p>\n
What do the Aces need to do to win?<\/p>\n
Everything with Las Vegas begins and ends with A\u2019ja.<\/p>\n
She has to establish the defensive intensity and attack the basket on offense. During the season, Wilson averaged 23.4 points, 10.2 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 2.3 blocks, and 1.6 steals. As unfair as it may seem, Wilson will have to keep this production up to keep Las Vegas in the postseason.<\/p>\n
The Aces\u2019 backcourt will also be crucial to Las Vegas\u2019 success. Jackie Young has been excellent, and so has Chelsea Gray, but they\u2019ll have their hands full facing the Storm\u2019s guards.<\/p>\n
Another key for Las Vegas will be to grab rebounds and reduce turnovers. Seattle averaged 12.9 fastbreak points per game, which was the most in the league. If they can keep the Storm in halfcourt offensive situations, they\u2019ll be able to set up their defense and allow A\u2019ja to do her thing.<\/p>\n
What do the Storm need to do to win?<\/p>\n
The Aces have A\u2019ja and the Storm have Nneka Ogwumike. For the Storm to steal Game 1 on the road, Nneka will have to be the best version of herself.<\/p>\n
This is something she can absolutely do as an All-WNBA level player, scoring 18.3 points and seven rebounds per game. If Ogwumike has a monster game, it will help neutralize Wilson\u2019s impact and give Seattle a chance at winning on the road.<\/p>\n
Two other players Seattle will be depending are Gabby Williams and Skylar Diggins. Williams is one of the best defenders in the league, and Diggins will bring the offensive production to combat the scoring from the Aces\u2019 guards.<\/p>\n
Matchups often come down to who will force the other team to play their way. Seattle wants to be aggressive on defense and get out and run. If they can do that, they\u2019ll put themselves in position for an upset and a chance to return home to close this first round out.<\/p>\n
No. 2-seed Las Vegas Aces (0-0) vs. No. 7-seed Seattle Storm (0-0)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The No. 2-seed Las Vegas Aces ended the regular season on a 16-game winning streak, and they\u2019ll take…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":{"0":"post-264705","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}