LAS VEGAS \u2014 Las Vegas Aces guard Dana Evans could barely speak on the eve of the 2025 WNBA Finals. She isn\u2019t sure exactly how she lost it, but her was voice was beyond scratchy. The 5-foot-6 guard was barely audible.<\/p>\n
A day later \u2014 after trying everything to help it heal \u2014 she let her play do the talking.<\/p>\n
Evans scored 21 points in 26 minutes off Las Vegas\u2019 bench to fuel the Aces to a 89-86 second-half comeback against the Phoenix Mercury for a 1-0 series lead. Fellow reserve guard Jewell Loyd added 18 points to help Las Vegas claw back from a nine-point deficit midway through the third quarter.<\/p>\n
Heading into the opener of the seven-game series, Aces coach Becky Hammon predicted their depth could be a potential separator between the opponents. \u201cI think we have the best overall bench that we\u2019ve had since I\u2019ve been here,\u201d she said after getting a jump in Las Vegas\u2019 quest for a third title in four years.<\/p>\n
It would be hard to disagree with her assessment, especially after Las Vegas\u2019 three-point win in which the Aces\u2019 bench outscored the Mercury reserves 41-16.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what makes us a difficult team,\u201d Hammon said. \u201cIt\u2019s because we do have that potential for somebody else to come up and get 20, not just (A\u2019ja Wilson, Jackie Young and Chelsea Gray), but multiple options. They were timely today. Oh my goodness, our bench was huge.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a raucous home crowd welcomed the Aces back to this familiar stage, Hammon instructed Young and Gray to get Evans and Loyd going. Although her numbers dipped this season, Loyd is a proven scorer and just a year removed from averaging nearly 20 points per game. Meanwhile, Hammon calls Evans \u201cGears\u201d because of how she changes the tempo for Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
Wilson has a different moniker for the spark-plug guard.<\/p>\n
\u201cDana\u2019s our battery,\u201d she said. \u201cShe makes us play at a different pace. I tell her we go as she goes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, four-time WNBA MVP Wilson was essential too. Though Hammon said Wilson looked a little fatigued, the star forward chipped in with a 21-point, 10-rebound double-double.\u00a0 And in a game featuring little defense for three quarters, the experienced Aces stiffened in the fourth quarter, allowing just 15 points on 33.3 percent shooting. Las Vegas switched a 2-3, clogging gaps in the middle of the defense.<\/p>\n
Even with the key adjustment and bench scoring burst, Phoenix had opportunities to pull away during the second half, including the waning seconds. Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas went to the free-throw line with 24.6 seconds remaining to shoot two that could have given Phoenix a one-point lead. But Thomas, a career 65.1 free-throw shooter, missed both. The Aces, unlike the Mercury, wouldn\u2019t let their opportunity go to waste.<\/p>\n
Thomas finished just shy of a triple-double with 15 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists. Kahleah Copper and Satou Sabally scored 21 and 19 points, respectively, for Phoenix. But Friday\u2019s game was not about the starters.<\/p>\n
Evans joined the Aces this past offseason after spending 3 1\/2 seasons with the Chicago Sky. In 2021, she won a championship there \u2014 an experience Hammon saw as valuable as she sought to sign the then-26-year-year old last winter.<\/p>\n
Her role is often simple: Play aggressive defense, and as one of the league\u2019s faster players with the ball in her hands, get in the paint on offense. She said her defensive disruptiveness gets her going, but her 3-point shooting was also critical in the opener. She became the first player in WNBA Finals history to make five 3-pointers and record four steals in a game.<\/p>\n
Game 2 will come quickly. On Sunday afternoon, the Aces meet the Mercury again. It will be on the Mercury\u2019s bench to respond, and follow a playoff trend that has served them well so far. They\u2019re 2-0 in Game 2s this postseason, after losing Game 1 in each round.<\/p>\n
But even in the WNBA\u2019s first-ever best-of-seven finals, opportunities remain finite.<\/p>\n
Evans is glad her voice has (mostly) returned. Her performance helped her spirits, too. And Hammon is hoping that she can call her shot to the same degree of success ahead of Sunday\u2019s sequel.<\/p>\n
\u201cI predict our bench will be better,\u201d Hammon said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease predict that,\u201d Wilson added.<\/p>\n
Hammon\u2019s intuition was correct once. Can it be again?<\/p>\n
(Photo of Dana Evans: Stephen Greathouse \/ NBAE via Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS \u2014 Las Vegas Aces guard Dana Evans could barely speak on the eve of the 2025…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":276518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[4144,1502,62,67,132,68,232],"class_list":{"0":"post-276517","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-las-vegas-aces","9":"tag-phoenix-mercury","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us","14":"tag-wnba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}