LAS VEGAS -- The Las Vegas Aces won their 17th consecutive game Sunday, as they opened their WNBA playoff run with a 102-77 decision over the Seattle Storm. One more victory will tie the 24-year-old 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 now.
"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 to give Las Vegas its third WNBA championship.
And Aces star A'ja Wilson said of the streak, "You guys celebrate this more than we do. The streak stopped in the regular season."
It didn't really, but in Wilson's mind the streak is of limited importance now. Something perhaps for the history books, and she's too busy dominating the present to think about that. The record of 18 straight win was set by the 2001 Los Angeles Sparks, who won the WNBA title that year and were led by Lisa Leslie.
Leslie is one of four players to win the WNBA MVP three times, along with two other retired Hall of Famers, Sheryl Swoopes and Lauren Jackson, plus Wilson, who just turned 29 in August. She could win MVP No. 4 this season. Sunday, she had 29 points, 8 rebounds, 3 steals, 2 assists and 2 blocks.
It was Wilson's 11th consecutive playoff game with at least 15 points and 5 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 now has 878 points in 44 postseason games. She could pass Hall of Famer Seimone Augustus (901 points) in the Game 2 of this best-of-three series Tuesday in Seattle (ESPN, 9:30 p.m. ET).
Wilson was top-notch Sunday, but so was the rest of the team. Fellow past No. 1 draft pick Jackie Young had 18 points, 7 assists, 5 rebounds and 4 steals. NaLyssa Smith, the No. 2 pick in the 2022 draft by Indiana, was traded to Dallas before this season and then acquired by the Aces in another trade on June 30. She had 11 points, 9 rebounds and 2 blocks and contributed to a defensive effort that frustrated the Storm all night.
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 Sunday. Las Vegas is now 7-0 in first-round playoff games since Hammon took over as coach in 2022, the year the Aces won their first WNBA title.
Sunday's game felt over by halftime, when the Aces led 45-25, as the Storm tied the franchise record for fewest points in a playoff half. Seattle played a bit better in the second half yet still lost ground.
Now, the Storm must reverse all the momentum the Aces have been building since their winning streak began on Aug. 3. Going home to Seattle should help. Last season under a different first-round format -- where the first two games were played at the home of the higher seed, instead of 1-1-1 like now -- the Storm were swept here in Las Vegas. Although there is this concern, too: the Storm's home record this season -- 10-12 -- was the worst of any 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."
