Postgame Notes:

The 104 points allowed by the Aces are the second most they have allowed all season. It is also the fourth time Las Vegas has given up 100 or more points this year (105 vs. Seattle on May 27).

A’ja Wilson (29 points) reached double figures in scoring for the 26th straight game to start her WNBA career, which is an Aces’ record. She also scored 20 or more points for the 15th time this season.

Kayla McBride (18 points) scored in double figures for the 23rd time this season and her 22nd game in a row.

Tamera Young (10 points) scored in double figures for the 15th time this season.

Dearica Hamby (10 points) scored in double figures for the ninth time this season.

Las Vegas was whistled for 25 personal fouls which is the second most in a game for the Aces this season.

Phoenix’s 29 made free throws and 35 free throw attempts are the second most by a Las Vegas’ opponent this year.

Las Vegas Aces Quotes:

Las Vegas Aces Head Coach Bill Laimbeer 

Opening Statement: 

I was trying to find the right words to talk to the players but couldn’t come up with the right words. Not disappointed but frustrated maybe. I thought that it was a game that we played with intensity. We could’ve won. We didn’t play very well across the board. A’ja Wilson played a stellar game but overall, I thought we struggled. I’ll take a lot of the blame for the shoot around today. It wasn’t a very intent shoot around. It didn’t get us off to a very good start today so I’ll take a fair amount of the blame. At the same time, our players have to learn what the games means. This was a big game. We needed to get a home win to set us up on the road. Give credit to Phoenix. They played well with their big three going off. Griner and Taurasi carried them a long way. We just couldn’t get over the hump and couldn’t get the stops we needed. What hurt us in the second half was way too many second shots. That really hurt us and our momentum just killed it right there and then Taurasi made some big shots and then we lose. Hopefully it’s a learning experience. I told them that at the end of the day, it’s just one game and we can beat anybody that we play on any given night. So now we have to go in the road and prove who we are against teams that are in funks and that’s what it should be about.   

On the importance of the upcoming road trip: 

Stress? I wouldn’t say that we have any stress. We weren’t expected to get to the playoffs so there’s no pressure as far as expectations. We’re just trying to win basketball games. We take it one game at a time. We don’t look ahead. I think that if our players focus on the individual games coming up at hand and each one of our games for the rest of the season then that’s all I can ask as a coach. I don’t think there’s any pressure on us. We didn’t play well. McBride struggled. It was one of her first games in a long time where she struggled shooting.

On Phoenix’s shooting: 

The three-ball line is an area where we’re obviously deficient. We get beat there all the time. The disparity today was a little bit larger than normal but where Phoenix wins games and where they won the game today was with the field goal percentage disparity. They win all of their games like that. They play a lot of close games. They shot about 50 percent and we shot about 39 percent. That was the difference in the basketball game today. Yeah, you can throw in the three-point shooting but if we shoot 50 percent tonight we win this game. 

Aces Forward A’ja Wilson

On an all-star break “hangover” 

Yeah you can say that.  They got their game out yesterday so for us we knew it was going to be a bit shaky and we didn’t have a good showing, but we have to continue to control what we can control and bounce back for a couple road games

On ability to score 20 in the first half consistently 

I hope so, I hope to contribute for my teammates in any way that I can, whether it’s points, rebounds, or cheering. 

On big three for Phoenix showing up tonight

When you have great players like Griner and Taurasi and an x factor coming in, it is tough and when they’re on it’s tough.  People can say the same thing about us but that’s just the game and we have to just buckle down on our defense assignments and do the best we can to execute. 

On what has surprised her in her rookie season

I’ve had a lot of surprises but just the pace of the game.  I thought it was going to be a lot quicker and I didn’t think I was going to be able to keep up but it’s just how you play and continue to push through.  I didn’t expect my body to last this long honestly especially with the back-to-backs and the schedule that we’ve had 

On how to move forward after loss

You turn the page in situations like this.  We’re going on a road trip and we really need those games, so we need to just really buckle down into who we are and not change up anything.  Because we’re making this playoff push we really can’t get out of ourselves, we have to keep pushing.  

Aces guard Kayla McBride

On today’s performance

It’s tough coming off an All-Star break and I put the game on me, I feel like I didn’t come out ready, I wasn’t hitting shots, I wasn’t being the leader my team needed me to be and we fell behind and let Diana get going.  I think Dewanna Bonner was key for them scoring 20 points tonight and we expect BG and Diana to do what they do but this game is on me.

On what could have been done defensively to get back into game

I think we had to be in Diana’s face from the beginning, we let her get hot early and she got to the free throw line a lot.  As a shooter knowing that when you have nobody guarding you everything else becomes easy.  We needed to limit their free throw attempts in order to have a chance.

On poor shooting performance 

It doesn’t really matter how many shots you make or miss, but you have to continue to be yourself out there and that’s what coach expects from me, but I didn’t have it today.  

On upcoming road trip

We have two tiebreakers that we really need against Connecticut and Washington, it’s tough that we have to play them on the road.  I always call it the midnight rule, after tonight you can’t worry about the game, you have to look to the next three and hopefully we’ll bring three wins back home.

Phoenix Mercury Quotes:

Head Coach Sandy Brondello

On the win:

We played some of our worst basketball during the month of July. Obviously, we lost a very key player for us [Sancho Lyttle] to an ACL injury. It took us a while to adjust but I made a change to the starting lineup tonight, moving DeWanna Bonner. I thought that was good for us and Stephanie Talbot gave us some really great energy but Diana Taurasi…what can you say? It was a really special performance. I thought Brittney Griner struggled a bit in July but we just got back to playing harder. I questioned our defense last night after the game so full credit to this team. They want to win as much as anyone else. Las Vegas beat us pretty recently and we knew that we had to come ready to play and we shot the ball really well so that always helps. 

On team defense and containing A’ja Wilson: 

Wilson is a great talent. She just found ways to the basket. We left her open a little bit too much and our rotations weren’t there. But she’s a great player. That’s how good she is as a rookie, which is quite impressive. During the second half, we just said let’s be more active with our rotations and not just wait for Griner to get back. With defense, you need everyone to be committed to it and I thought we were. Our rotations worked well. We didn’t block them as well on the offensive boards just be because they’re so good there but I’m happy where we are. We played hard and harder than we had in the past. You have to play hard every game for 40 minutes if you want to be successful. 

On Diana Taurasi’s performance:

Obviously, she’s the best player in the world. It’s not just her scoring. Her court vision is great. She had nine assists. She must be fatigued out there because I run so many plays for her but that’s just how special she is. She loves those big moments. Like me, she’s been disappointed with how we’ve been playing in July but we said this is August now and we’re 1-0, which is good because it was a tough July for a while. 

On building momentum: 

Any win is good for us but we need to find a way to be better at home. We haven’t been. We have more wins on the road than we do at home. We’ve only got one more game on the road and we have five more at home and we need to come out with that energy. We want to get as high a playoff spot as possible but we know that each and every game is a playoff game until the end. 

Starting Forward Stephanie Talbot

On going into tonight’s game:  

I was excited. My plan was to just try to build a little energy to the starting lineup with running the floor, crashing the boards and try to get a bit more energy at the start of the game.

On bringing energy to this starting lineup:

That’s one of my goals as a role player. We have some big names in our starting lineup with Taurasi, Griner and Bonner who all are crazy good scorers. As a role player, I think it’s my role as a young player to bring the energy and crashing the boards is one way to do it.

On Taurasi, Griner and Bonner’s performance: 

They played amazing tonight. Taurasi was insane and she balled out. What can you say?

Guard Briann January 

On the win:  

We just brought the energy and effort that we needed to play with every night. Sometimes we come out a little flat and we have the talent on our team but that’s not enough in this league. Everybody plays hard and has equal amounts on talent. Like Vegas, they got us last time but we knew we had to step up and bring it tonight. 

On Taurasi, Griner and Bonner performance: 

Everybody’s fed up with losing. Nobody like’s losing on our team and we have some competitors. They showed up and we’re refusing to walk out of here with a loss tonight. 

On building momentum the last half of the season: 

Just stay fresh as possible and stay locked in. We’re locked in when we’re playing together and utilizing all of our weapons, we’re pretty good. We just have to show up every night and give it our best effort and we’ll put ourselves in a good position.