{"id":85634,"date":"2025-08-15T20:58:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T20:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/85634\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T20:58:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T20:58:09","slug":"dominant-mercury-star-may-crush-remarkable-aces-late-season-surge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/85634\/","title":{"rendered":"Dominant Mercury star may crush remarkable Aces’ late-season surge"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is no denying the Aces are rocketing through a late-season surge that few would have predicted weeks ago. Las Vegas has won five straight games since suffering a tough 111-58 loss to the Lynx on August 2 \u2014 but that streak could come crashing down Friday night when the the team faces the Mercury in Phoenix.<\/p>\n

The entire Mercury roster is strong this season, and it’s clear coach Nate Tibbets has cracked the code in terms of understanding what makes the team so cohesive more often than not, but there is one player who has consistently been the reason for the team’s surprising dominance in 2025: potential MVP Alyssa Thomas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At this point in the season it’s tough to come up with new ways to describe Thomas and the performance she’s put in for the Mercury. She was traded to the team<\/a> after spending 11 seasons with the Connecticut Sun (the team who drafted her as the No. 4 overall pick in 2014), a move that was met with curiosity: Thomas has been one of the most consistent players in the WNBA, but hasn’t quite been rewarded in the way she truly deserves. <\/p>\n

Mercury fans, fresh off the departure of Brittney Griner and operating under the assumption Diana Taurasi was on the brink of announcing her retirement, weren’t quite sure what to make of Thomas at the time. There was clear potential between her, Satou Sabally, and Kahleah Copper, but no blueprint for that kind of dynamic under a coach who was also new to the team.<\/p>\n

Thomas, as she is wont to do, jumped in and immediately put any skepticism or questions to bed. She is currently playing basketball the best she ever has, and is averaging 16.1 points, 8.7 rebounds, and 9.0 assists per game \u2014 stats that she’ll likely continue to improve upon before the 2025 season is wrapped.<\/p>\n

Perhaps it would be foolish to credit a single player with having the ability to bring down an entire team that’s hot in the moment, but if there is someone who can do it, it’s probably AT. If the Aces continue to play as they have recently, there is little doubt they will put on a formidable show \u2014 A’ja Wilson is also on a tear right now that’s reminding everyone why she’s the reigning MVP in the first place \u2014 but this season seems a little personal for Thomas, as if she’s operating on a plan of her own design.<\/p>\n

The Mercury hosts the Acts Friday night at 7:30 pm PST<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There is no denying the Aces are rocketing through a late-season surge that few would have predicted weeks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85635,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-85634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85634","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=85634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}