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Alexa Philippou, ESPN
INDIANAPOLIS — Late in the first half Wednesday night, Las Vegas Aces star A’ja Wilson received the ball from teammate Chelsea Gray, jabbed it to the left side and then took South Carolina Gamecock teammate Aliyah Boston off the dribble, pulling it up. free throw line for a jump shot.
It’s been an incredible run for the two-time — maybe soon to be three-time — WNBA MVP. And in Wednesday’s 86-75 win over the red-hot Indiana Fever, Wilson etched her name into the history books once again by recording the most points in a WNBA season.
Wilson’s pull-up jumper with 26.4 seconds left in the first half gave him 941 points this season, two more than Jewell Loyd’s previous record of 939 set last season. With 27 points at the end of the game, Wilson’s point total for 2024 is at 956, making her 44 points away from becoming the first WNBA player to score 1,000 in a single season.
The feat came as Wilson returned after missing his first game since 2019 with a minor ankle injury.
“It feels good because now people will stop talking about it,” Wilson said of the record after the game. “It felt like a daze, daze, daze, so I’m glad it’s over.
“I don’t want to sound cliché when I say this, but I wouldn’t have achieved anything without every friend along the way. And I’m very grateful to be able to play with selfless women. everything every day, and she’s really clean, and that’s the most I love you,” she said, holding back tears. “My friends, they keep me going, they keep me going.”
Wilson, who was named WNBA MVP in 2020 and 2022 and Finals MVP in 2023, has been sensational in the past few years, leading the Aces to back-to-back titles in 2022 and 2023 as the first WNBA franchise to repeat in more than two decades. She also led the U.S. women’s national team to its eighth straight Olympic gold medal in Paris this summer, earning tournament MVP.
This season, Las Vegas has not been an unstoppable squad, sitting in fourth place in the standings after finishing with the No. 1 spot the past two years. The Aces have had to rely more than ever on Wilson, and he has answered the call on both ends.
Coach Becky Hammon said pregame that Wilson’s season should be considered the best in league history, and there’s plenty of evidence to back it up: Wilson’s 27.3-point scoring average — on 52.1% shooting from the field — is on track. making it the highest single-season average in WNBA history. And in addition to being a double-double machine with consistency on the glass (11.9 rebounds per game), he was a premier defender as a two-time defensive player of the year.
Wilson’s teammate, Alysha Clark, asked the audience to respect Wilson for what she has done on the court.
“One day he’s not going to be here. He’s going to retire and go on with his life, and people are going to be amazed at what he’s done. And I’m like, amazed now,” Clark said. “It’s amazing. And what he’s done consistently, from day one of the season, there’s no doubt who’s the best player in the world.”
Added Hammon: “You really start to see a really, really gifted woman come to this stage of maturity not only in life, but in her basketball career. She is not only the best player in the world, she is probably the most loved and adored by her friends, I mean, this woman is special.”
Wilson’s special night highlighted the Aces’ fifth win in six games, the only loss of the week without Wilson against the league-best New York Liberty. Hammon has been pleased with the team’s defensive efforts in recent weeks, including Wednesday as a high-powered offense ran up 75 points on 39.7% shooting.
As part of it, the physicality and strength of Las Vegas throw from the new superstar Caitlin Clark, who has a subdued game by the standard with 16 points, 6 assists and 5 turnovers.
“Attention to detail,” Hammon said. “We’re locked in. We’re doing well on base. And when you’re doing well on base and you’re locked on base, when we do that, we tend to be on the same page, and we’re able to get a couple of stops in a row, which gives many opportunities to attack … We think about defense.
The Fever thought they left some points on the board and could have moved the ball more. But they’ll have one more to beat the two-time defending champions – the only team they haven’t beaten this season – on Friday.
“I still feel like we haven’t given it our best,” Clark said, “so I think Friday is a good opportunity for us to do that.”
Added Kelsey Mitchell: “I think we all kind of lapsed, and we take whatever they give us, and we don’t have to. And I think going to the next maturation, the next phase we are there, we can’t. take anything. We have to hit first, and when he comes back, we should be able to stand up and come back.
