The Las Vegas Aces look to rebound from a humbling defeat when they host the struggling Indiana Fever on Thursday night.
The Aces (18-8) were badly outplayed in a 92-76 home loss to the Atlanta Dream on Tuesday. The 16-point margin represents Las Vegas’ second-worst setback of the season.
The Aces trailed 35-18 after one quarter and never got on track.
“We’ve got to find it,” Las Vegas star A’ja Wilson told reporters. “We’ve got to dig a little deeper, give a little more.”
The Aces shot a season-low 36.6 percent from the field while Atlanta made 51.6 percent of its shots. The Dream were a stellar 15 of 24 from 3-point range while Las Vegas was just 10 of 35. Atlanta also held a 40-29 rebounding edge.
One of the few positives for Las Vegas was Kelsey Plum knocking down three 3-pointers. That gives her a single-season franchise-record 83, breaking the mark held by current coach Becky Hammon, who made 80 in 2012 when the franchise was located in San Antonio.
The Aces are just 5-6 after opening the season with victories in 13 of 15 games.
The Fever (5-23) are in a deep decline with 10 consecutive losses, including Tuesday’s 86-79 road defeat against the Los Angeles Sparks.
The loss was the smallest during a skid in which the average defeat is 14.7 points. Indiana sabotaged its upset chances with 24 turnovers.
Tiffany Mitchell scored a season-best 22 points off the bench while continuing her recent hot spell. Mitchell has tallied 15 or more points in three of the past five games after previously not reaching double digits all season.
Mitchell has played at least 22 minutes in four of the past five games. She said the rise in production is in correlation with the increase in minutes.
“I think that’s with any player, if they play consistent minutes, they start to find a rhythm, a game rhythm,” Mitchell said, according to the Indianapolis Star. “So thankfully for me, since I’ve been playing more, I’ve been feeling more in tuned to the game, making it a little easier for me to get going.”
This is the first of three meetings between both teams in the final 11 days of the month. They meet again in Indianapolis on July 29 and 31.
–Field Level Media