Aces’ hot shooting torches Sparks to secure 2-seed for playoffs

The Aces went out with a bang as they beat the host Los Angeles Sparks 103-75 in their regular-season finale Thursday night at Crypto.com Arena to secure the No. 2 seed in the WNBA playoffs.

The Aces will open the best-of-three first round of the playoffs against the No. 7 Seattle Storm at 7 p.m. Sunday at Michelob Ultra Arena. Game 2 will be Tuesday night in Seattle, and if a third game is necessary that will be played Thursday night at Michelob Ultra Arena.

With one last shot from reserve center Megan Gustafson in the final 50 seconds Thursday, the Aces set a WNBA regular-season record for 3-pointers in a game with 22. They also ended the regular season on a 16-game win streak, which is the longest to close a season in league history.

Reigning MVP A’ja Wilson led the Aces (30-14) with 23 points and 19 rebounds, while Jewell Loyd had 21 points off the bench.

Former Aces forward Dearica Hamby and rookie Sarah Ashlee Barker each scored 15 points for the Sparks (21-23). Guard Kelsey Plum, who requested a trade from the Aces this offseason and was dealt to Los Angeles in a three-team deal that sent Loyd to the Aces, also had 15 points.

The Sparks entered the game with nothing to play for but their pride after they were eliminated from playoff contention despite beating the Phoenix Mercury on Tuesday. With multiple former Aces on their roster, the hosting team initially appeared capable of creating a competitive matchup.

In the Aces’ 12-7 start to the game, forward Hamby looked like a woman on a mission as she scored all of the Sparks’ opening points.

But the Sparks didn’t have the firepower to keep up with the Aces, which entered the game averaging 8.8 3-pointers but had already drained 11 by halftime — thanks to guard Jackie Young taking over in the first quarter with 12 points on 4-of-7 shooting from deep in the first 10 minutes.

Jackie Young became the youngest and faster player in WNBA history to reach 3,000 points, 1,000 rebounds and 1,000 assists (243 games).

“I think it just shows resilience,” Young said of the Aces’ success. “Everybody just bought into the process of what it takes to win. I think everybody is playing super unselfish, and that’s why we’re winning games. … Just playing together, having fun, playing with a lot of energy and playing at the pace that we want to play at.”

Wilson embodied Young’s description of the Aces as she was double-teamed and limited to 6 points and three assists in the first half but came alive in the third quarter with 14 points, including two 3-pointers.

Even veteran forward Cheyenne Parker-Tyus, in just her second game with the Aces after giving birth to her son Yoshua on July 1, banked in a 3-pointer to close the third period.

The WNBA all-time record for 3-pointers in a game, playoff and regular season is also held by the Aces. They recorded 23 versus the Phoenix Mercury in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series in 2022. Point guard Chelsea Gray had seven of those 3-pointers. She finished with 15 points and 10 assists on 3-of-5 shooting from deep Thursday.

The Aces won the first of back-to-back WNBA championships in the year of their all-time 3-point shooting night, but Wilson said Thursday’s showing didn’t remind her of the past.

“If anything, it just reminds me of how we practice. I feel like sometimes our practices look like this, where we’re just clicking on all cylinders and we’re feeling good. So, I think it just feels great just to now see it in a game, and now it’s working for us,” Wilson said. “But it doesn’t really feel too similar (to 2022), because it’s just a completely different team, a completely different vibe.”

Aces coach Becky Hammon was more happy with the Aces recording 35 assists than their historic shooting.

“For me, it’s more fun to watch the ball movement that leads to the 3, the cutting, the kick-outs, the playing together that they did. That’s more exciting to me,” Hammon said. “There was a point in the beginning of the season where we couldn’t throw it in the ocean.”

Contact Callie Fin at cfin@reviewjournal.com. Follow @CallieJLaw on X.