Aces vs. Valkyries: Jackie Young Scores 21 and a 21-2 Run Sends Las Vegas Past Golden State, 92-73

Golden State took 15 3-pointers in the first half in Las Vegas on Sunday and made one. Jackie Young and Chelsea Gray each had three by themselves, and Jewell Loyd had two, so you can do the math on how the rest of this went.

Young scored 21 points without a turnover, A'ja Wilson added 19 points and nine rebounds, and the Las Vegas Aces used a 21-2 second-quarter run to roll past the Golden State Valkyries 92-73 at Michelob ULTRA Arena. The Valkyries trailed by as many as 28, their largest deficit of the season.

Fourteen Competitive Minutes

The strange part is that Golden State started the game well, at least inside the arc. The Valkyries opened 7-for-7 on 2-pointers, with Cecilia Zandalasini, fresh off her career-high 23 on Friday, supplying three baskets in an 8-0 run that made it 14-10. The Aces answered with eight straight of their own and took a 23-17 lead out of the first quarter, helped along by the Valkyries going 0-for-7 from deep.

Tiffany Hayes hit two straight to open the second and Kaitlyn Chen finally drained Golden State's first 3 of the game, and that 7-0 burst put the Valkyries in front at 24-23. They were still within a point at 29-28 with 6:08 left in the half.

Then the lights went out. Las Vegas scored 21 of the next 23 points, and by the time the horn sounded, it was 50-30. The Aces won the third quarter 27-19 to go up 77-49, and the last 10 minutes were basically a long, polite wait for the buses. Golden State's 24-15 edge in the fourth moved the final score around without changing a single thing about the afternoon.

Jackie Young, Efficiency Machine

Young's game was as clean as a stat line gets. She went 9-of-12 from the floor, 3-of-6 from 3, and finished plus-24 with five assists and zero turnovers in 32 minutes. Those five assists lifted her to 1,136 on the Aces' all-time list, good for second place after passing Becky Hammon, which means she just went by her own head coach. The only name still ahead of her is Gray, at 1,179, and Gray was busy adding to that total on the same afternoon.

Gray, naturally, was running the show again, with 15 points on 5-of-7 shooting and nine assists. Wilson made all five of her free throws, grabbed nine rebounds, blocked two shots and finished plus-27 without committing a foul in 31 minutes. NaLyssa Smith scored 14 on 6-of-7 shooting, and Loyd added 14 off the bench by hitting four of her five 3s, also finishing plus-27. Five Aces in double figures, and nobody needed to force anything.

For the Valkyries, the bright spots came in small packages. Zandalasini led them with 12 on 6-of-9 shooting, and Chen scored 11 off the bench. Gabby Williams had 10 for her seventh straight game in double digits, though she went 4-of-11 from the field and missed all four of her 3s. Laeticia Amihere scored 10 and was the rare Valkyrie to solve the arc, going 2-of-2. Nadia Fingall scored the first points of her career in the closing minutes. Hayes, who took an elbow to the face, exited with six minutes to go and stayed out.

Chen also supplied the highlight of the day, a crossover so sharp it knocked Loyd's right shoe clean off her foot, and she floated in the bucket over the help. It was the closest thing to a Cinderella moment Golden State was going to get, and in this version, the player who lost her shoe still went home with the win.

The Turning Point: 21-2

The back half of the second quarter was the whole game. NaLyssa Smith did the early damage with three baskets in a 10-0 run that made it 39-28, and Golden State's only response was a pair of Williams free throws. Then Gray hit two 3s and Young scored five during an 11-0 spurt that ended with 1.9 seconds left in the half. A one-point game had become a 20-point game in a little over six minutes, and the Valkyries, who were cold from deep to begin with, suddenly had to shoot their way back into it. That went about as well as you would expect.

Stats That Matter

• 5-of-30: Golden State from 3, at 17 percent, after missing 19 of its first 20. Las Vegas went 11-of-24.
• 62 percent: The Aces from the field on 36-of-58 shooting.
• 21-10: The assist margin, which says plenty about who got good looks and who did not.
• 46-28: Las Vegas in the paint, a lopsided number for a team that also made 11 3s.
• 11-2: Golden State's edge on the offensive glass, and all those extra chances still could not make this close. The Valkyries also won the rebounding column 31-25, which is about the only number they can put on the refrigerator.

What It Means

The Aces are 12-4, 4-2 at home, and have won eight of their last nine overall. They are also 3-0 against the Valkyries this season, adding this one to a 91-81 win on May 31 and an 84-79 win on June 6. New York visits on Tuesday in what ought to be a much sterner test.

The Valkyries fall to 10-7 and 3-4 on the road, with two straight losses following their four-game winning streak. The schedule at least offers a reset, with Atlanta coming to Chase Center on Wednesday, though a team that shot like this on Sunday will want a long look at the film first.

The Residency Continues

Every big act eventually lands a Las Vegas residency, and this one has a tight, reliable set list: Gray conducts, Young does not miss, Wilson erases whatever is left. Golden State has bought a ticket three times this season now and has yet to see a different ending. It might be time to check out a different show.

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