{"id":871015,"date":"2026-10-05T00:30:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T00:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/871015\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T00:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T00:30:09","slug":"golden-state-valkyries-hold-las-vegas-aces-to-season-low-in-points-earn-game-1-victory-aces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/871015\/","title":{"rendered":"Golden State Valkyries hold Las Vegas Aces to season low in points, earn Game 1 victory | Aces"},"content":{"rendered":"

Everywhere the Las Vegas Aces<\/a> looked during Sunday\u2019s WNBA semifinal opener against the Golden State Valkyries, they saw lavender.<\/p>\n

Whenever Las Vegas\u2019 all-everything forward A\u2019ja Wilson touched the ball, a wall of purple-clad defenders surrounded her. Fans packed the seats in matching lavender \u201cWe Are Ballhalla\u201d shirts, touting the energetic environment at San Francisco\u2019s Chase Center.<\/p>\n

The scoreboard showed the pastel-tinted truth: a 71-60 loss to Golden State in Game 1 of the WNBA semifinals \u2014 a season low in points.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll we talked about for the last 48 hours was rebounding and blocking them out, and we did not do it. Period,\u201d Aces coach Becky Hammon said. \u201cI could end this whole thing right now. Don\u2019t ask me about the game. It\u2019s rebounding. That was it.<\/p>\n

Good news is we played like ass and only lost by 10. So dissect that however you want.<\/p>\n

Wilson led the Aces with 24 points. Chelsea Gray, who became the WNBA\u2019s all-time playoff assist leader Sunday, finished with 16. Brianna Turner had a team-best seven rebounds.<\/p>\n

Gabby Williams was a force for the Valkyries, scoring 25 and coming down with 11 rebounds. Kiah Stokes, who won three championships with Las Vegas, finished with 14 rebounds and three blocks against her former team.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very evident that the rebounding was the issue,\u201d Aces guard Chelsea Gray said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to recover when teams get 17 O-boards and 20 second-chance points. The game was in the margins and the hustle plays, and they beat us every single time in that category.<\/p>\n

The Aces will have a couple days to regroup before returning to Chase Center for Game 2, Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. PT.<\/p>\n

Golden State has been one of the league\u2019s premier defensive teams this season, and it proved that again on Sunday.<\/p>\n

The Valkyries fiercely guarded the boards and kept Wilson from getting too comfortable. She faced constant double teams, usually with Stokes shadowing her. The result? Wilson shot just 8 for 21 from the floor and finished with a plus\/minus of -12.<\/p>\n

The Aces didn\u2019t have an offensive rebound until Brianna Turner secured one roughly two minutes into the second half. In total, Las Vegas was out-rebounded 52 to 25.<\/p>\n

The few times an Aces player got an open look at the basket, shots just didn\u2019t fall. After shooting 45.3 percent from the floor in the first-round finale against the Indiana Fever, that figure fell to 33.8 percent Sunday against the Valkyries.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey wanted it more than us,\u201d Aces forward Kierstan Bell said. \u201cTheir hustle was there and they just grabbed every (rebound) so next game, we just have to lock in and rebound and make sure that they don\u2019t get second chance points.<\/p>\n

Depth has been a problem the last couple games for Las Vegas \u2014 one that continued in Game 1. Stephanie Talbot missed her second consecutive game, recovering from a left knee injury. Aces coach Becky Hammon said before the game that Talbot is day-to-day.<\/p>\n

The issue worsened Sunday when Jewell Loyd, who stepped up in Talbot\u2019s absence Thursday against the Fever, suffered a left leg injury early in the second half and did not return.<\/p>\n

Once again, Hammon relied on her veteran stars (Wilson, Young, Gray) to log heavy minutes. Young played more than 38 minutes. Wilson and Gray were on the court for over 35 minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just got to go with what\u2019s sitting on that bench \u2014 next woman up,\u201d Hammon said. \u201cWe don\u2019t have a lot of time to sulk about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody feels bad for us. It\u2019s just the next woman up, and you know, we went to the zone a little late, just trying to recoup some legs, I think, with some people playing some high minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Everywhere the Las Vegas Aces looked during Sunday\u2019s WNBA semifinal opener against the Golden State Valkyries, they saw…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":871016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-871015","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\/871015","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=871015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/871016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=871015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=871015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=871015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}