The Las Vegas Aces will play their first road game of the season Wednesday night when they travel to Minneapolis for a clash with the Minnesota Lynx.
Minnesota (4-1) is ahead of Las Vegas (3-1) in the standings this season. The Lynx are coming off Sunday’s dominant 92-79 road victory over the Dream in Atlanta, where Kayla McBride scored 31 points — and knocked down six 3-pointers.
McBride, a Notre Dame product in her 11th season in the league and fourth with Minnesota, didn’t miss a shot until the fourth quarter. Her 10-of-12 shooting from the floor is the best she’s shot in a game as a professional. McBride was also 5-of-5 from the free throw line, didn’t commit a foul and had just one turnover in more than 31 minutes of play.
Simply put, it was a near-perfect effort from Minnesota’s lead guard.
“You don’t walk into a game knowing, like, I’m going to do all these crazy things. I just wanted to be aggressive from the jump,” McBride said. “I felt good when my first shot went down.”
Added Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve: “This is just crazy for her position. We needed it.”
To beat the Aces — the franchise that drafted McBride, and with whom she made three All-Star teams — the Lynx will likely need another strong performance from its leader.
The two-time reigning champion Aces lead the league in scoring with 91.3 points per-game after scoring 99 on Saturday in a double-digit home win over the Indiana Fever. A’ja Wilson, Jackie Young and Kelsey Plum each scored more than 20 points, while Wilson — who is playing like an early MVP frontrunner — also corralled 15 rebounds.
“Last year, I was kind of going with the flow,” Wilson said. “This year, I feel like I’m trying to pick the defense apart and get to my spots. I sometimes settled a lot last year, which gave the defense time to get a stop. So, this year I feel like I’m starting to dissect the game a little bit more.”
Wilson is third in the league in scoring (25.5) and second in rebounding (12.8) while shooting 50 percent from the floor and averaging 2.3 blocks a night.
Minnesota, which ranked second in the league in scoring (88.6) entering Tuesday, is 1-9 against Las Vegas in their last 10 meetings.
