WNBA power rankings: Can the Aces keep climbing in the standings?

There is a play from Las Vegas’ win over Washington on Saturday that I keep rewatching. The Aces are comfortably ahead of Washington, en route to their 10th consecutive victory, and Jade Melbourne is driving to the basket from the left wing. A’ja Wilson is shadowing Melbourne’s movement each step of the way, leaving no doubt that she’ll reject the shot attempt out of bounds.

And when Melbourne still attempts to challenge the two-time Defensive Player of the Year, Wilson swats it away with ease. She skips her way onto the baseline, after making a spectacular play look ordinary. The camera pans to her teammates, where Jewell Loyd is sporting a smile a mile wide — the only thing you can really do in the presence of that kind of greatness.

It’s a moment that reminds me of the 2023 season, when Las Vegas was at the peak of its back-to-back title-winning powers. Wilson would have dozens of plays like that on any given night, and the mood among the Aces was pristine all year long: full of joy and awe at what they were witnessing.

These Aces aren’t as good as their 2023 iteration. But Wilson still is. And as a revamped roster in Las Vegas finally comes together, they’re playing with the confidence that comes from having arguably the best player in the world at the center of it all.

Over their 10-game winning streak, the Aces have the best offense in the league at 114.8 points per 100 possessions, similar to the 113 mark they sported in 2023. Wilson is averaging 27 points and 13 rebounds, while Jewell Loyd, Dana Evans and NaLyssa Smith are all making at least 40 percent of their 3s. Las Vegas is playing exceptionally small, as Kiah Stokes and Meg Gustafson are only sparingly getting in off the bench, and Chelsea Gray has held up defending forwards in a pinch. But its defense is still third during this stretch, keeping Las Vegas below average for the full season.

Nevertheless, after following as low as ninth in the standings in July, the Aces are all the way back to third, one-half game behind second-place Atlanta, and the Aces own the tiebreaker over the Dream. Although Minnesota is out of reach — and the Lynx retain the top spot despite two losses after welcoming back Napheesa Collier — it’s plausible that Las Vegas could have homecourt advantage on its way back to the finals, especially if the Aces win in Atlanta on Wednesday.

Rankings

Three standout performances

1. Kelsey Plum leads the way

Being a leader takes on a lot of forms for Kelsey Plum. One role is taking ownership of her team’s performance. “The biggest thing is when your top players take accountability,” Plum said earlier this year. “The best players that I’ve always played with always take the most responsibility, good and bad.” Another is setting an example for the younger players on her team. Rickea Jackson constantly cites Plum’s work ethic as an inspiration in her second season. She wants to live up to the standard Plum embodies.

Sometimes, being a leader means having the ball in your hands at the end of a game and being relied upon to make a play. Down one against the inferior Dallas Wings — though one with a scorching-hot Paige Bueckers — in a game the Sparks had to have to keep their playoff hopes alive, that’s what Plum did.

“I knew I was going to be able to get a good look, probably not all the way at the rim, but something in the paint,” Plum said. “I didn’t want to give them a shot, and I was gonna shoot out the buzzer and live with whatever the result was.”

(She also hardly celebrated and called out the Sparks’ defense for putting them in that position to begin with).

From the moment coach Lynne Roberts was hired by the Sparks, even before Plum had come over from Las Vegas, the organization has publicized its goal of reaching the postseason. Plum has said she would consider this season a success if it ends in the playoffs, where L.A. hasn’t been since 2020. The Sparks have a tough road ahead to achieve that mission, with the most games remaining, including five in eight days. They’ll need a leader who has been through battles to get them there, and that’s what Plum has to do.

When you want to be a leader, It’s great when it’s great. But when it’s not great, you’ve got to take responsibility.

2. Connecticut’s unexpected winning streak

The future of the Connecticut Sun is in flux, with the Mohegan Tribe ownership attempting to sell the team while the WNBA complicates any attempted relocation. Whether the Sun will exist in its current market beyond 2026 is unclear, but wherever they land, they at least have a young core in place.

A three-game winning streak over Washington and Chicago doesn’t change the fortunes of this team in the present, but the cavalry is on its way. Leïla Lacan has been a one-woman defensive dynamo, now leading the league in steals after reaching the games-played threshold. She also posted the league’s second-ever 14 assist, zero turnover game (a feat former Sun point guard Veronica Burton repeated later in the week). Her decision-making pops on both ends of the floor.

Saniya Rivers has been similarly impactful in the passing lanes, and her finishing in transition is among Connecticut’s best sources of offense; Rivers is also a terrifying help defender, a useful trait to have as a guard. Aaliyah Edwards looks comfortable off the bench, and she totaled 18 points and nine rebounds in a pair of wins over her former team last week while making two-thirds of her shot attempts. (She is merely the latest UConn product to thrive at Mohegan Sun Arena.) That trio of players on rookie contracts gives Connecticut a foundation only one year into its rebuild.

3. Alyssa Thomas can’t stop getting triple-doubles

Over the last nine games, Alyssa Thomas has more triple-doubles than any player in WNBA history. That’s five triple-doubles over three weeks, compared to four all-time for second-place Sabrina Ionescu. There is no better way to speak to Thomas’ versatility than that stat.

The importance of Thomas’ stat lines is that they lead to wins; the Mercury are undefeated when Thomas posts a triple-double, including a must-have win against the Valkyries when she had a career-best 16 helpers. She leads the league with 9.2 assists per game, becoming the only player in league history other than Courtney Vandersloot to average at least nine assists in a season.

The term point forward gets thrown around a lot, but Thomas legitimately serves as Phoenix’s offensive initiator. She is fourth in the league in defensive rebounds and brings the ball up herself. She is one of the best pick-and-roll operators in the WNBA, averaging 0.926 points per possession as the ballhandler, good for the 84th percentile league-wide. And she combines that offensive creation with the 10th most steals in the league, the seventh-best field-goal percentage and the 14th-most free-throw attempts.

Rookie of the week

Paige Bueckers, Dallas Wings

Hard to pick anyone else the week Bueckers tied a rookie record with 44 points in a single game, matching the mark set by 34-year-old Cynthia Cooper in the WNBA’s inaugural season. Although she is known for her midrange game, Bueckers has become more intentional about getting closer to the rim, especially as she commands a larger share of the offense without Arike Ogunbowale (knee injury). She had four finishes in the restricted area in her masterpiece against the Sparks, plus nine more shot attempts in the paint, of which she made six. Bueckers is forever hunting the right play, even if that means passing the ball out to an open Aziaha James for the dagger instead of taking it herself against L.A.

Two months into the season, it was already clear that Bueckers was putting together a top-two rookie season for a WNBA guard. She has been even more efficient since the All-Star break, and her 3-point percentage — the primary flaw in her resume — has climbed above league average, putting her in All-WNBA conversations despite Dallas’ poor record. It’s a shame that Bueckers hasn’t been able to play in many high stakes games this season, as the quality of her play demands a better showcase. The Wings front office has a lot of work to do to make sure this is the earliest Bueckers’ season ever ends. She is too good to be out of the picture at the most important time of the WNBA season.

Game to circle

New York at Phoenix, 10 p.m. (ET) Saturday

Four teams are within two games of each other, all hoping to jump into the No. 2 or No. 3 seed and avoid Minnesota until the WNBA Finals. The Liberty like their chances against the Lynx after beating them in last season’s finals, but moving up in the standings means more games at home at Barclays Center —- one of the best homecourt advantages in the league. The Mercury have struggled against the cream of the crop of late and could use a win against a bona fide contender to feel better about their postseason chances. Breanna Stewart is scheduled to return soon; there haven’t been many full-strength matchups between the WNBA’s best as the playoffs approach.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

Minnesota Lynx, New York Liberty, Seattle Storm, Los Angeles Sparks, Washington Mystics, Atlanta Dream, Chicago Sky, Connecticut Sun, Indiana Fever, Dallas Wings, Las Vegas Aces, Phoenix Mercury, Golden State Valkyries, WNBA

2025 The Athletic Media Company

Source link