Aces' A'ja Wilson drops 'funny basketball gods' take after roller-coaster Game 1
09/23/2024 11:27 AM
The Las Vegas Aces know that the WNBA championship isn’t won during the 40-game regular season grind. They know to save their best for when it matters the most, and to end the regular season, A’ja Wilson and the Aces turned up, winning nine of their last 10 games to come into their first-round matchup against the Seattle Storm looking more locked in than they’ve ever been this season.
In Game 1, the Aces set up a defensive fortress en route to their 78-67 win over the Storm. They held the Storm down to a grand total of two points in the fourth quarter, and it helped that Wilson got into more of a rhythm the deeper they went into the game. Wilson endured such an uncharacteristically poor start to the game that she needed to gather herself so she could stay the course — dragging herself out of the quicksand in the process.
“The basketball gods have a funny way of showing me that sometimes you’ve just got to get out of the mud. I love doing that, because it keeps my mind going. My teammates continue to never let me doubt myself. And I sometimes do … and they always pick me up,” Wilson said, per Michael Voepel of ESPN.
“In the second half, the game kind of settled down for me and I really started to dissect the defense. That was kind of when I got rocking and rolling.”
A’ja Wilson did not look like her usual MVP-level self in the first quarter of the Aces’ eventual victory over the Storm. She was off-kilter, and she ended the first 10 minutes with just four points on 1-8 shooting from the field. Las Vegas’ offense scuffled as a result, ending the first quarter with just nine points.
Wilson then failed to score in the second quarter, putting a cap on the total disaster that was her first-half play. But in the third quarter, the MVP came alive; the Aces star scored 15 points on 7-10 shooting in the third quarter, which was then enough for Las Vegas to build momentum en route to holding the Storm without a field goal for the entirety of the final frame.
Wilson is on top of the world, although even the best cannot be faultless. Regardless, the Aces star held it together just in time for the defense to figure out the Storm — and she may have the basketball gods to thank for that.
Aces star A’ja Wilson had herself a’good second half
A’ja Wilson has been the subject of plenty of teasing online; there have been plenty of rumors linking her and Miami Heat star Bam Adebayo together, and everyone has been joking around on social media as a result — including the Heat’s social media team.
In Game 1 of the Aces’ playoff series against the Storm, they certainly channeled Adebayo’s Heat and their famed culture in plenty of ways. Wilson’s quote about getting out of the mud sounds a lot like it was borrowed from the Heat’s ethos — something that head coach Erik Spoelstra has been spewing for years.
They may not be official yet in the public sphere, but they say that two people in a relationship become more like one another with each passing day. With Wilson channeling Heat culture, those dating rumors with Adebayo aren’t going away anytime soon.
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