LAS VEGAS (September 18, 2024)—With one game remaining in the regular season, the Las Vegas Aces will host the first two games of the first round of the 2024 WNBA Playoffs, which begin on Sunday, September 22 at Michelob ULTRA Arena. What is still unknown, however, is whether the Aces will finish in 3rd or 4th place and whether they will play Indiana or Seattle.

The bigger picture of the postseason will be clear on Thursday night, as all 12 teams are in action. Las Vegas (26-13) hosts the Dallas Wings (9-30) at MUA starting at 7 p.m. PT. The game will be broadcast locally on the Silver State Sports & Entertainment Network.

An Aces win over the Wings and a Connecticut loss to Chicago would vault Las Vegas to No. 3 and they would host the Fever in the first round. An Aces loss or a Suns win would keep Las Vegas at No. 4 and they would host the Storm.

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The Dallas Wings dropped out of the playoff race just over a week ago after a disappointing injury-ridden 2024 season. They entered the offseason with high hopes after posting a 22-18 record last year. The Wings were able to return 6 of their top 7 scorers from 2023, but adversity struck long before training camp began. Last year’s Most Improved Player Award winner Satou Sabally suffered a shoulder injury during the Olympic Qualifying Tournament in February and missed the first half of the 2024 season.

The Wings won three of their first five games, but subsequent injuries to Natasha Howard (broken foot, missed 13 games) and Maddy Siegrist (broken finger, 13 games) proved too much for Dallas. They lost 11 straight games during the year and take an eight-game losing streak into the regular season finale.

The 2023 Wings boasted the league’s third-most efficient offense (106.9 OER) but eighth-most efficient defense (103.5 DER). Those rankings have dropped to fifth (102.2 OER) and 12th (111.5 DER) in 2024.

What’s particularly problematic is that opponents are converting 53.0 percent of their 2-point shots and 47.5 percent of their total field goal percentage. Dallas is the second-best offensive rebounding team in the league (.349 OReb%), but the third-worst defensive rebounding team (.685 DReb%).

Arike Ogunbowale (22.2 points per game) is second in the WNBA and leads the Wings in scoring, as she has done in each of her previous 5 seasons in the W. Upon her return, Sabally picked up where she left off in the 2023 season, averaging 17.4 points, 6.4 rebounds and 4.9 assists while sinking 43.6 percent of her shots from beyond the arc.

Howard (17.8 points per game) and Teaira McCowan (11.7 points per game) gave Dallas two more double-digit points, but McCowan is suspended for Thursday’s game because she has picked up seven technical fouls this year. Under WNBA rules, a player or coach is automatically suspended for one game without pay if they pick up a seventh technical foul during the regular season. McCowan’s unfortunate seventh foul came with 1.9 seconds left in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s game against Indiana.

Las Vegas is 8-1 in their last 9 games and that winning streak has been fueled primarily by the team’s defense. The Aces have held each of their last 9 opponents under 80 points, allowing a league-low 72.9 points per game during that span. Opponents have also made just 29.6 percent of their shots from 3-point range over the last 9 games.

M’VP Favorite A’ja Wilson made her name in the record books for the umpteenth time this season when she broke the WNBA single-season record for most points last week.

Diana Taurasi’s nearly 20-year-old season average of 25.3 points per game has officially dropped. Wilson averaged 26.9 points per game in 38 games and if she plays, she will still surpass DT’s record.

Wilson has already set or tied WNBA records for … this season.

Consecutive games with 20 or more points, including 20 in a row from August 28, 2023 to June 27, 2024

Consecutive games with 25 or more points, including 8 in a row, from May 25 to June 13, 2024

Consecutive games with 30 or more points, including 4 in a row from September 2, 2023 to May 14, 2024

Consecutive games with at least 20 points and 10 rebounds, including 8 in a row from July 5 to August 18, 2024

Wilson also broke the WNBA record for win shares in a season with 10.9. Heading into the final night of W games, even if she doesn’t play, Wilson has 2.3 more than runner-up Breanna Stewart of New York (8.6) and 3.5 more than Napheesa Collier of Minnesota (7.4). To put that in perspective, Wilson’s season this year is one Jewell Loyd (3.5) better than Collier’s and one Dianna Taurasi (2.1) better than Stewart’s.

All this despite leading the WNBA with the lowest turnover percentage, committing errors on only 5.3 percent of the possessions she influenced – the fourth-lowest percentage in league history.

Leading candidate for Sixth Player of the Year Tiffany Hayeswho signed with Las Vegas as a free agent on May 31, has been the Aces’ second most efficient offensive player of late. Over the last 17 games, she’s averaging 10.6 points per game while shooting 54.5 percent from the field and 48.8 percent from 3-point range. This season, she now ranks 14th in the league in field goal percentage at 50.0 percent and 11th in 3-point field goal percentage at 39.5 percent.

Kelsey Plum (11th, 17.8 points per game) and Jackie Young 16th (15.8 points per game), both are also in the league’s top 20 in scoring. Plum’s 110 made 3s are the third most this year, and she recently became one of only 5 players in league history to make 100 or more 3s in multiple seasons (Taurasi, Arike Ogunbowale, Kelsey Mitchell, Sabrina Ionescu). In addition to her points, Young ranks 7th in the league with 5.3 assists per game.