Aces vs. Tempo: A'ja Wilson and Jackie Young Combine for 50 as Las Vegas Rolls Past Toronto 93-73

NaLyssa Smith went down with a left leg injury in last Sunday's win over Toronto, and according to the AP, it ended her season. Five days later, with the same opponent back on the schedule, A'ja Wilson and Jackie Young made sure the first night of life without her felt like business as usual.

Wilson scored 27 points with eight rebounds, Young added 23 points and eight assists without a single turnover, and Las Vegas rolled to a 93-73 win over the Toronto Tempo on Friday night at Michelob ULTRA Arena. Chelsea Gray chipped in 11 points and four steals, and once Young broke an 8-8 tie with a first-quarter 3-pointer, Las Vegas led the rest of the way, by as many as 26.

Isabelle Harrison paced Toronto with 15 points, Laura Juskaite added 14 points and eight rebounds, and Kia Nurse hit four 3-pointers for 12. Kiki Rice and Kiana Williams scored 10 apiece. The Tempo actually matched the Aces with 10 made 3s, but they turned it over 17 times and sent Las Vegas to the free-throw line 21 times, and that combination was never going to beat a team this good at home.

Vegas Wins the First Quarter, Then Cruises

The game was tied at eight when Young pulled up and hit the 3-pointer that put Las Vegas in front for good. The Aces then finished the quarter in a hurry, including an 8-0 burst that turned a 16-14 lead into 24-14, and they were up 27-17 after one. Per the AP, Las Vegas made 10 of its 20 shots in the opening quarter, six of them from deep, while Toronto committed nine turnovers before the first break.

The second quarter was more of the same, even after the outside shot cooled off. The AP had the Aces going 1 of 6 from 3-point range in the period, yet they still shot 50 percent for the half on 18-of-36 shooting, mostly because Toronto could not stop fouling. The Tempo picked up 12 personal fouls before halftime, and Las Vegas cashed in 13 of 14 free throws on the way to a 56-39 lead at the break.

Toronto made its move early in the third quarter, scoring eight straight points to turn a 62-41 deficit into 62-49 with five minutes left in the period. Las Vegas answered, Wilson kept going to work, and the lead was 74-55 after three quarters. The fourth was a formality.

Wilson and Young Run It Back

Wilson was her usual self, which is to say a problem nobody has solved. She made 10 of 17 shots, went 7 of 8 at the free-throw line, grabbed eight rebounds and blocked two shots in 30 minutes. There was no single highlight that defined her night. There was just a steady drumbeat of buckets that Toronto could not match.

Young might have been even better. Her 23 points came on 6-of-13 shooting, including 4 of 9 from 3-point range, and she made 7 of 8 at the line. The eight assists against zero turnovers is the line that jumps off the page, though. Running an offense for 26 minutes without giving the ball away once is the kind of quiet perfection that rarely makes a highlight package and almost always wins games.

Gray added 11 points, four assists and four steals, finishing plus-18. Cheyenne Parker-Tyus gave Las Vegas a jolt off the bench with nine points and seven rebounds in only 12 minutes, four of those boards on the offensive end. Jewell Loyd hit two 3-pointers in 14 minutes, and Stephanie Talbot scored only three points but posted a team-best plus-19.

For Toronto, Harrison worked for her 15 on 5-of-14 shooting and added seven rebounds and four assists, though she also had four turnovers. Juskaite was the most efficient Tempo starter at 6 of 11. Nurse's four 3-pointers kept things respectable early, and Williams gave Toronto a lift off the bench by making 4 of 7 shots.

The Turning Point: Young Breaks the Tie

It sounds strange to pick a first-quarter shot as the turning point of a 20-point game, but this one fits. Before Young's 3-pointer at 8-8, Toronto was trading punches. After it, the Tempo never led again, spent the rest of the quarter turning the ball over and chasing, and watched Las Vegas close the period with that 8-0 run and a 10-point lead. Sometimes the moment a game changes is obvious only in hindsight. This was one of those nights.

Stats That Matter

• 17 turnovers, 18 points: Las Vegas scored 18 off Toronto's giveaways. Toronto got two points off the Aces' seven turnovers.
• 19 of 21 vs. 9 of 13 at the line: The Aces turned Toronto's fouling into a 10-point edge at the stripe.
• 8 assists, 0 turnovers: Young ran the offense without a single mistake.
• 36-28 in the paint: Wilson and company owned the inside.
• 10 steals: Gray had four of them.

What It Means

Las Vegas improves to 27-13 (13-7 at home) and, according to the AP, kept its one-game lead for third place in the playoff race over Indiana (26-14), which beat Connecticut 111-91 the same night. The Aces have won three straight, following a 101-78 home win over Connecticut on Aug. 20 and the 88-78 win at Toronto on Aug. 23, and they swept the season series from the Tempo 3-0 after also winning 109-83 in Toronto on July 20.

Toronto falls to 11-28 (4-15 on the road) and has dropped three in a row, with the Aug. 23 home loss to Las Vegas and a 90-78 defeat at Seattle on Aug. 26 coming before this one. The Tempo visit Phoenix on Saturday, while the Aces do not play again until Sept. 17 at Seattle after the FIBA World Cup break.

The Residency Never Closes

Wilson and Young have the feel of a Las Vegas residency that has been running for years: no wasted motion, every hit lands, and the crowd knows the setlist by heart. Losing Smith hurts, and the Aces will have to figure out the rotation over the break. On Friday, though, the headliners did what headliners do. They showed up, played the hits and left Toronto with an 0-3 season series to think about.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Injury, standings and first-half shooting notes as reported by the Associated Press; streaks and season series recounted from 2026 results.