The Aces finished the WNBA regular season with a 100-82 win over the Phoenix Mercury on Thursday, led by A'ja Wilson's 34 points and nine rebounds. Wilson added five assists and a steal in 35 minutes as Las Vegas shifted its focus to the playoffs.
Wilson made 16 of 28 shots, including one three-pointer, according to ESPN. Jewell Loyd scored 25 points off the bench for Las Vegas, according to bozemandailychronicle.com.
A Record-Tying Scoring Night
Thursday's 34-point outburst gave Wilson her 13th game of 30 or more points this season, tying the league mark she set a year earlier, the report notes. She also finished the year shooting better than 40 percent from three-point range for the second consecutive season, a sharpshooting evolution for a player once known almost exclusively as an interior force.
Over the full 2026 slate, Wilson averaged 26.2 points, 9.4 rebounds and 3.2 assists across 41 appearances, the site's stats page shows. Those numbers have made her one of the most decorated players of her generation since the Aces made her the first overall pick in the 2018 draft, according to Basketball-Reference, which also lists her at 6-foot-4 and 195 pounds.
Aces Enter Playoffs as No. 3 Seed
The win pushed Las Vegas to a 31-13 regular-season record, according to the bozemandailychronicle.com recap. The defending champions now enter the playoffs as the No. 3 seed and will face the No. 6 seed Indiana Fever when the first round opens Sunday, the outlet reports.
A Previous Playoff Meeting
The teams have met in the postseason before: Indiana beat Las Vegas 89-73 in Game 1 of a best-of-five semifinal on September 21, 2025, according to CBS Sports’ gametracker. That semifinal meeting was distinct from the upcoming first-round series.
Wilson's fourth MVP honor, listed on her official WNBA player profile, underscores her importance to the Aces' title hopes.
