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LAS VEGAS — The Aces won their 17th consecutive game Sunday, opening their WNBA playoff run with a 102-77 victory over the Seattle Storm. One more win will tie the league record and put Las Vegas into the WNBA semifinals for the seventh season in a row. But it’s another number that means the most to the Aces.
“It’s the first to nine wins, so that’s how we want to approach it,” Aces coach Becky Hammon said of what it will take for Las Vegas to win its third WNBA championship.
“You guys celebrate this more than we do,” Aces star A’ja Wilson said of the streak. “The streak stopped in the regular season.”
In Wilson’s mind, the streak is of limited importance. She’s too busy dominating the present to think about that. The record of 18 straight wins was set by the 2001 Los Angeles Sparks, who won the WNBA title that year and were led by Lisa Leslie.
Leslie, Sheryl Swoopes, Lauren Jackson and Wilson are the only players to win the WNBA MVP three times. Wilson, who could win MVP No. 4 this season, had 29 points, 8 rebounds, 3 steals, 2 assists and 2 blocks Sunday.
It was Wilson’s 11th consecutive playoff game with at least 15 points and five rebounds, tying Leslie for the second-longest such streak in league history, according to ESPN Research.
Wilson also moved into 10th place on the WNBA’s career playoff scoring list. She has 878 points in 44 postseason games. She could pass Hall of Famer Seimone Augustus (901 points) in Game 2 of this best-of-three series Tuesday in Seattle (ESPN, 9:30 p.m. ET).
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Wilson was dominant Sunday, but so were her teammates. Jackie Young had 18 points, 7 assists, 5 rebounds and 4 steals. NaLyssa Smith, who was acquired by the Aces on June 30, had 11 points, 9 rebounds and 2 blocks and contributed to a defensive effort that frustrated the Storm all game.
The Aces’ bench scored 34 points, led by Jewell Loyd’s 14. After hitting a WNBA regular-season record 22 3-pointers in their finale last Thursday, the Aces made 14 on Sunday. Las Vegas is 7-0 in first-round playoff games since Hammon took over as coach in 2022, when the Aces won their first WNBA title.
The Aces led 45-25 at halftime, as the Storm tied the franchise record for fewest points in a playoff half. Seattle played a bit better in the second half but still lost ground.
To extend this series, the Storm have to snap the Aces’ momentum, which has been building since their winning streak began Aug. 3. Playing Game 2 in Seattle should help. Under last season’s playoff format, which gave the higher seed the first two games at home, the Storm were swept in Las Vegas. But playing in Seattle isn’t a guaranteed remedy for the Storm, who were 10-12 at home — the worst home record of the eight playoff teams.
“Our fans deserve for us to play well,” Seattle’s Nneka Ogwumike said. “We have to figure out how to do it, no matter what. That’s going to be the test on Tuesday.”
