If the matchup Sunday with the Indiana Fever was part of the WNBA’s postseason, then A’ja Wilson would’ve been playing instead of watching from the sideline at T-Mobile Arena.
“She wants to play,” Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammon affirmed before an 84-68 loss. “I’m not letting her play.”
Not until there’s no long-term risk.
The Aces are taking the right approach with the injured four-time league MVP, who missed her third straight game — including the Commissioner’s Cup championship game loss to the New York Liberty, which doesn’t count toward the regular-season standings — with the right ankle sprain suffered last Sunday against the Chicago Sky.
Her long-term health outweighs the merit of a win at this juncture of the regular season and their second-place record at 15-6 gives them leeway in the standings as she recovers.
Weight of her absence
That’s not to say Las Vegas hasn’t felt the weight of her absence in three games without her, missing her presence plus 25.7 points, 9.4 rebounds, 1.6. steals and 2.0 blocks through 19 games. The soon-to-be five-time MVP — so long as she plays a majority of the 44 games — leaves a two-way void with which the Aces are 1-2. They fizzled in the second half Sunday, short on energy and depth against a Fever outfit down star point guard Caitlin Clark.
“I thought we quite frankly ran out of gas,” Hammon said during postgame Sunday, following the team’s fourth game in eight days. “We looked tired. … Got a couple days here to rest and regroup and go out on the road for one” Thursday against the Portland Fire.
Sitting Wilson against Indiana forms a 10-day break before the meeting with the Fire, but a back-to-back Saturday and Sunday follows at home against the Phoenix Mercury and Fever again. Then comes an eight-day break before a matchup with the Toronto Tempo.
Sitting Wilson through the trip to Toronto would give her a three-week break in total at the cost of five games, worth the trade-off if its necessary and the soreness lingers.
But until she’s back, as evidenced Sunday, the Aces won’t be working with much margin for error without her catching double teams offensively and backstopping their underwhelming point-of-attack defense. With Clark sidelined by a back injury — zapping the sizzle from the nationally televised matchup in conjunction with Wilson’s absence for the announced crowd of 17,726 — the Fever turned to fellow star guard Kelsey Mitchell for 27 points while getting 18 points and 10 rebounds (amid a 39-30 advantage) from standout center Aaliyah Boston.
More than Wilson’s points
Conversely, the Las Vegas big-ticket backcourt — Chelsea Gray, Jackie Young and Jewell Loyd — shot 11 of 33 with nine turnovers.
“It’s not just A’ja’s points,” Hammon said. “It’s her gravity. It’s her pull. It’s how her presence gets other people open. Now … we’re in a lot of situations where people are cheating on some players and it’s hard to play like that.
“So we have to do a better job of just finding space, moving the ball and letting things find us on the third and fourth sides. We’re not getting the ball to the second or third side offensively. Really kind of bogs us down.”
Figuring out how to play well without her is a good problem to have at this point in the season — and a necessary one until she’s ready to return.
Ready without any long-term risk.
“Obviously, there’s no replacing what A brings to the team,” said Brianna Turner, a backup forward summoned Sunday to play a season-high 28 minutes. “But I think it’s really a group effort. Making sure we’re focusing on rebounding and playing physical.
“Obviously, we can’t fill her shoes but we’re doing our best.”
Contact Sam Gordon at sgordon@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BySamGordon on X.
