Las Vegas Aces vs. Phoenix Mercury
May 6, 2022 10:00 pm EDT
The Line: Phoenix Mercury +3.5
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The Las Vegas Aces and Phoenix Mercury face off on Friday on the opening day of the WNBA season at the Footprint Center. When these two teams faced off in October of 2021 it was Phoenix that won 87-84.
There is a lot of buzz around this Las Vegas Aces team, and a big reason is because of their new coach. Many believed that Becky Hammon might get an NBA coaching job, but for now, she is the coach of Aces. The star of this Aces team is A’ja Wilson, and although she is only 25 years old now, there has to be talk already about if she will end up being one of the all-time greats. In 113 career games, she is averaging 19 points while shooting 46.4 percent from the field and 50 percent from behind the three-point line. On paper, this is such a talented team, but they don’t have as much pressure last season. In their only preseason game this season, the Aces scored 86 points, but they still lost by three points.
On the other side of this matchup is the Phoenix Mercury, who have a ton of questions heading into this season, and the biggest one revolves around their star player. Brittney Griner is still detained in Russia, and it’s unclear when she will be released. She won’t be with the team for this game, and not having her is a big loss. Even though they won’t have Griner, this is still a team that was busy this off season. The team signed Tina Charles, who was the scoring champion last season. They also traded for Diamond DeShields, who is going to need to have a big season. In the only preseason game, the Mercury gave up 82 points and that led to the four-point defeat.
Not having Griner is a big loss for this team, and until they have her back, Phoenix is going to have some issues. A’ja Wilson is basically unguardable, and having Hammon as the coach is going to help this team take a big step forward. Look for Wilson to have a big game, and the Mercury won’t play enough defense here, after giving up 92 points in the last game. Back Las Vegas against the spread.
