The Las Vegas Aces moved into first place in the WNBA standings this week by beating the Minnesota Lynx in a game that turned on the final possessions. A’ja Wilson finished it at the free-throw line, and the Aces are now in position to reach the Commissioner’s Cup final for the third time in five years if they win one of their next two games against Dallas and Phoenix.
That is why fever game today is drawing so much attention. The standings changed, the top spot changed hands, and the path to the Cup final now runs through two more games that Las Vegas cannot afford to waste. The Aces did not just survive; they took control of the league’s most important short-term race at the same time the East bracket was being settled with one game to go.
The win came in crunch time, with Olivia Miles attacking Wilson to great effect in the fourth quarter before Wilson answered at the line. Before the final play involving Wilson, the Aces used a reset timeout, then trusted their MVP to close it out. That matters because the margin at the top is so thin that one late stop or one missed free throw can change the bracket.
It also fits the week’s larger pattern. Seven WNBA games were decided in overtime or by one possession, and the league spent the week in a kind of chaos era where every possession seemed to matter. The New York Liberty clinched their bid in the East bracket with one game to go, while the Toronto Tempo, Connecticut Sun, Chicago Sky and Indiana Fever were all dragged into overtime games. The Mystics twice went to the final seconds, losing once on a Caitlin Clark 3-pointer before winning later on Sonia Citron’s buzzer-beater.
New York still brings the league’s longest current winning streak, and Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones are being spoken of as an MVP pair even though neither is said to be at her peak. That is the twist that keeps the Liberty dangerous: Stewart made history on Sunday with a career-high seven blocks, becoming the 16th player in WNBA history to record seven blocks in one game, and over the last five games New York has had the best defensive rating in the WNBA while starting a rookie and Marine Johannès in the backcourt.
For the Aces, the next step is simple and unforgiving. Win once against Dallas or Phoenix, and the No. 1 spot starts to look less like a brief swing and more like the place Las Vegas intends to stay.
