Aces vs. Mercury: A'ja Wilson Scores 34 as Las Vegas Enters the Playoffs on a Seven-Game Win Streak

Phoenix had not scored yet. Las Vegas had 14. That was the story of the opening minutes of the Mercury's season finale on Thursday night, and it never really stopped being the story.

The Las Vegas Aces beat the Phoenix Mercury 100-82 at Mortgage Matchup Center, closing the regular season with a seventh straight win. A'ja Wilson scored 34 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, Jewell Loyd came off the bench for 25, and the defending champions now turn to the playoffs as the No. 3 seed, with sixth-seeded Indiana due in Las Vegas on Sunday.

Fourteen Points Before Phoenix Found the Rim

The 12,385 fans in Phoenix barely had time to find their seats. The Mercury misfired on their first five shots and gave the ball away seven times while the Aces built a 14-0 cushion by the 6:38 mark of the first quarter.

Wilson played like she had somewhere to be afterward. She made 8 of her 11 shots in the opening period for 17 points, and Phoenix's ball security handled the rest: 10 first-quarter giveaways, which Las Vegas converted into 12 points, per the team's recap. It was 32-18 after one, and it felt worse than that.

Loyd Turns the Second Quarter Into a Highlight Reel

If the first quarter was a Wilson solo, the second was a Loyd feature. She supplied every point in a 9-4 Aces push to start the period, back-to-back 3s included, and the lead ballooned to 41-22. Later in the quarter, Las Vegas strung together nine straight to go up 59-28, and the margin eventually peaked at 31.

The Aces took a 65-36 lead into the locker room. According to the team, those 65 points were their most in any half this season. Wilson had 21 at the break, Loyd had 17, and the pair had gone a combined 16 of 21 from the floor. That is not a shooting split. That is a cheat code.

Phoenix Makes It Interesting, Briefly

Give the Mercury credit for refusing to coast through the last 20 minutes of their season. They came out of halftime with 11 unanswered points to get within 65-47, and the Aces managed only 12 points in the entire third quarter. Wilson steadied things with consecutive putbacks, and Las Vegas carried a 77-60 lead into the fourth.

Phoenix kept chipping. Natasha Mack's layup with 4:47 to play made it 87-78, and Kahleah Copper's pullup at 3:54 had it at 89-80. Nine points with under four minutes left is not garbage time. It's a pulse.

Las Vegas found that pulse and flattened it. Wilson knocked down an 18-footer. Chelsea Gray made a technical free throw, then a step-back jumper. Loyd splashed a 23-foot 3 off a Wilson pass, and Gray capped the night with a 26-footer at 19.5 seconds. That was an 11-2 finish, and the AP noted that a pair of Phoenix offensive fouls and a technical sapped the comeback before it could get scary.

Wilson Did Wilson Things, and the Passers Did the Rest

Wilson's final line: 34 points on 16-of-28 shooting, 10 rebounds and four assists. Per the AP, this was her 13th game this season with at least 30 points, which equals the league mark she set a year ago. The team counted it as the 50th 30-point game of her career and said she finished the regular season No. 11 on the WNBA's all-time scoring list with 6,792 points, only 11 behind Sue Bird at No. 10.

Loyd's 25 came on 9-of-14 shooting, including 5 of 9 from deep, in 25 minutes, and the team called it her season high. Stephanie Talbot went a perfect 6 of 6 for 14. Kalani Brown poured in eight points in five minutes, the kind of efficiency that should come with a warning label.

The quieter flex was the passing. Jackie Young scored only five points but handed out 11 assists to go with seven rebounds and three steals. Gray had 12 points, 10 assists and five steals. According to the team, this was only the fourth time in WNBA history that two teammates each had at least 10 assists in a game, and the Aces own three of those four, with Gray part of all of them. The team added that Young's seven first-quarter assists were a career high for a single quarter.

The lone smudge was Gray's seven turnovers. On a night like this, nobody in the visiting locker room will lose sleep over it.

Copper led Phoenix with 18 points, Shay Ciezki added 13 off the bench, and Mack finished with 12 points, four steals and four blocks. Alyssa Thomas filled the box score with nine assists and seven rebounds but scored just six. The Mercury actually won the second half by 11. The first half, plus 18 turnovers, was the problem.

The Turning Point

The game was decided early, but the moment that mattered came with 3:38 left in the fourth. Phoenix had trimmed a 31-point hole to nine, and the building finally had something to cheer about. Wilson's 18-footer off a Young feed reopened the gap, Gray's technical free throw and step-back followed, and the Mercury never got back within single digits.

Stats That Matter

• 14-0: The Aces' opening run before Phoenix scored a point.
• 65: Las Vegas' first-half points, its highest-scoring half of the season per the team.
• 42 of 75: The Aces' shooting from the field, good for 56%.
• 21: Combined assists from Young and Gray, out of the team's 27.
• 18: Phoenix turnovers, against 13 for Las Vegas.

What It Means

Las Vegas finishes the regular season 31-13, including 16-6 on the road, and enters the postseason riding a seven-game winning streak. The Aces also took the season series 3-1. Phoenix won the opener 99-66 in what the AP framed as a rematch of last year's Finals, which Las Vegas won, but the Aces took the final three meetings by an average of 25 points.

Now comes the real stuff. As the No. 3 seed, Las Vegas opens a best-of-three first-round series at home against No. 6 Indiana on Sunday.

For Phoenix, the season ends at 16-28, with a 7-15 record at home.

Closing Take

This felt like the final dress rehearsal before opening night. The lead hit every mark, the featured players got their big scenes, Brown got a scene-stealing cameo, and when the third act wobbled, the veterans fixed it before the curtain came down. The turnovers and the 12-point third quarter will make the film session. But the Aces head into the playoffs on a seven-game heater with Wilson in full takeover mode. Indiana gets the next audition.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details as reported by the Associated Press and the Las Vegas Aces' official game recap.