In Game 1 of a best-of-five semifinal series, the Golden State Valkyries outplayed the defending champion Las Vegas Aces en route to a 71-60 win and a 1-0 series lead. Reigning WNBA MVP A'ja Wilson didn't have a terrible performance, but it wasn't her best playoff outing either. She finished with 24 points but only four rebounds in a game where Golden State dominated the battle of the boards.
The Valkyries held Las Vegas to 33.7% shooting, and Gabby Williams had an impressive game, finishing with 25 points, 11 rebounds, and five assists in the victory. After the loss, Aces head coach Becky Hammon gave her blunt assessment of her team's terrible night, leaving some room for improvement, but optimism heading into the rest of the series. More news: Sophie Cunningham Calls Out A’ja Wilson Over Fan Altercation at Fever Game "I thought that was one of our more atrocious games of the season.
I think we shot ourselves in the foot and got outhustled," Hammon said after the loss, which also saw Aces guard Jewell Loyd suffer a "lower leg injury." Hammon also called out her team, indicating they had discussed "rebounding and boxing out" for the past 25 hours but didn't do that in Game 1. "I could end this whole thing right now. Don't ask me about the game.
It's rebounding that was it," Hammon said. Golden State outrebounded Las Vegas 52-25, with three players grabbing the bulk of the rebounds for the Valkyries. In addition to Williams' big night, Kiah Stokes had a game-high 14 rebounds, with Kayla Thornton also grabbing 11 rebounds.
This past season, the Aces were tied with the Indiana Fever for seventh in rebounding, averaging 33.4 per game. The Valkyries were just below at ninth in the league, with 33.3 per game. Hammon called her team's Game 1 loss a "good news bad news" situation as they prepare for the upcoming game and the rest of this series.
"Good news is we played like [expletive] and only lost by 10. So dissect that however you want," Hammon said, before exiting her media session. Las Vegas will attempt to bounce back with Game 2 occurring Wednesday, Oct. 7 at 9:30 p.m.
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