Aces vs. Mercury: Las Vegas Rolls 106-58 to Match the Third-Largest Winning Margin in WNBA History

Nine points. That's what the Phoenix Mercury had after 10 minutes on Saturday, on 3-of-17 shooting with five turnovers. By the time the first quarter ended in Las Vegas, the Aces had 29, A'ja Wilson had nine by herself, and the only remaining mystery was how far this thing was willing to go.

The answer was very far. The Las Vegas Aces won 106-58 at Michelob ULTRA Arena, a 48-point margin that matches the third-largest win in WNBA history. Wilson needed just 25 minutes to post 21 points and 15 rebounds, and the Aces were up by as many as 54 in the fourth quarter of a game that had stopped being competitive before most people found their seats.

A Thousand Modest Runs

What makes this blowout strange is how unspectacular it was on a play-by-play basis. The record for margin of victory is 59, set when Minnesota beat Indiana in 2017 with the help of a 37-0 run. Las Vegas never had a run longer than nine. It just kept scoring, over and over, in manageable doses, the basketball equivalent of a slow leak in a very large boat.

Las Vegas scored the game's first nine points. An 8-0 burst across the quarter break pushed it to 31-9 with 9:40 left in the second, and the Aces got as far ahead as 37 before halftime. Another 9-0 run late in the second helped make it 57-22 at the break, and Wilson already had her double-double.

The third quarter offered no relief for Phoenix. The lead reached 45 in the period, and it was 79-36 going to the fourth. The Mercury actually scored 22 in the final quarter, their best of the day by eight points, and still lost that one 27-22. When your most successful 10 minutes consist of getting outscored by five, it's been a long afternoon.

Wilson Barely Had to Break a Sweat

Wilson's line was efficient in every way except the shooting percentage, which is its own kind of insult. She went 8 of 16, 1 of 3 from deep and 4 of 4 at the line, and 12 of her 15 boards came on the defensive end. She's a four-time MVP, per the AP, and she spent a chunk of the second half watching from the bench.

Chelsea Gray ran the show with 15 points and 12 assists on 6-of-12 shooting, finishing plus-42 in 28 minutes. Las Vegas assisted on 31 of its 39 baskets, a number that tells you how little resistance the offense faced. Cheyenne Parker-Tyus scored 15 off the bench on 7-of-8 free throw shooting, and NaLyssa Smith went 6 of 7 for 14 in 18 minutes.

The best subplot belonged to Justine Pissott, who scored 17 points in the first WNBA game of her life. Signed from Indiana's development roster on Friday, the second-round pick out of Vanderbilt played the entire fourth quarter and shot 6 of 7, including 5 of 6 from three. Most players spend their debut trying not to look lost. Pissott hit a 29-footer and a 25-footer inside the last four minutes, in a game where everyone in the building already knew who was winning, and turned garbage time into the most watchable part of the afternoon.

Phoenix's numbers are hard to look at. Monique Akoa Makani led the team with 13, and Lexi Held had 11. Kahleah Copper went 4 of 14 for nine points and finished minus-41. Alyssa Thomas scored seven. As a team, Phoenix shot 35 percent and made 7 of 31 threes, which at least meant nobody could accuse the Mercury of giving up on the idea. DeWanna Bonner, one of only three players ever to pass 8,000 points in this league, managed just two on 1-of-6 shooting.

It Was Over at 29-9

There's no real turning point in a game like this, only the moment you accept it. That moment came in the first quarter. Phoenix's 3-of-17 start wasn't bad luck against a hot team so much as a complete breakdown on both ends, and the Aces' five first-quarter threes turned a slow start into a 20-point hole before anyone on the Mercury bench had a chance to make an adjustment.

The other thing worth noting is who this happened to. This same Mercury team opened the season by beating these same Aces 99-66 on May 9, in Las Vegas no less. Two months later, the score flipped in every way a score can flip. And Las Vegas knows this feeling from the other side: last year's Aces lost 111-58 to Minnesota, the second-biggest margin in league history, then won their final 16 regular-season games and took home the franchise's third title in four seasons.

The Numbers That Mattered

• Assists: Las Vegas 31, Phoenix 14.
• Rebounds: Las Vegas 47, Phoenix 29.
• 3-pointers: Las Vegas 14 of 35, Phoenix 7 of 31.
• Points off turnovers: Las Vegas 24, Phoenix 13.
• Field-goal percentage: Las Vegas 51, Phoenix 35.

Where Things Stand

The Aces improve to 17-6 and 7-4 at home, with back-to-back wins and very rested starters. Nobody who started this game played more than 28 minutes, which matters with Indiana coming to town on Sunday. That Fever team beat Las Vegas here 84-68 just last week, so the Aces have a score to settle.

The Mercury fall to 8-16 and 5-8 on the road, and this was their third straight loss after dropping home games to Chicago and Indiana. Phoenix is at Minnesota on Monday, and there's no time to do anything but burn the film.

Ocean's Eleven, Without the Suspense

Every great Las Vegas movie has a heist, and the good ones make you sweat. This wasn't one of the good ones. There was no double-cross, no last-second vault twist, no nervous moment in the elevator. The Aces walked in, took everything in the first quarter, and spent the rest of the day handing the keys to a newcomer who had joined the team on Friday. Danny Ocean would've asked for a harder job.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details and history as reported by the Associated Press.