What We Learned From Week Four In The WNBA: The Aces Are For Real

The 2020 WNBA season is a little more than halfway done — crazy, I know — and the playoff scene is beginning to crystallize. This week, we saw big showdowns involving the Las Vegas Aces, the Chicago Sky, the Seattle Storm, the Los Angeles Sparks and the Phoenix Mercury. The Aces had two big wins against the Sky and the Storm, Seattle looked like they might not be invincible after all and the Sparks — well, they just kept on being the Sparks.

Here’s what we learned from week four’s action in the WNBA:

1. Are cracks starting to show in Seattle?

The Seattle Storm were cruising through this abbreviated season in Florida, blowing out teams before halftime, breaking shooting records and leaving their star players on the bench looking extremely bored. And then the Storm lost to the Indiana Fever and Las Vegas Aces in back-to-back games, and questions started to emerge about the strength of this Seattle team.

Now, it was all but inevitable that Seattle would lose a couple more games this season and perhaps this will serve as a nice wake-up call to the team to readjust their focus. But for now, we can look at what exactly went wrong for the Storm in their two recent losses. Against the Fever, Seattle struggled to get going on offense, only shooting 23.8% from beyond the arc in a loss that snapped their nine-game winning streak. Jewell Loyd had herself a game, going off for a career-high 35 points, but Breanna Stewart was pretty effectively limited by Indiana’s defense, which only allowed her 18 points, five rebounds and three assists — which for the 2018 MVP, are below her usually insane numbers.

On Saturday, we got a potential WNBA Finals preview between the Storm and the Las Vegas Aces, who got an early lead that Seattle couldn’t come back from. Vegas outscored Seattle 26-11 in the second quarter, and shot 44.1% from the field overall while the Storm only shot 37.3%. Seattle certainly missed Sue Bird in these two losses, but they’ll have to get back on track quickly — their next two games are against the Chicago Sky and then a rematch against the Aces.

2. The Las Vegas Aces are for real

This season, the Las Vegas Aces have kept on par with the Storm, occupying the second spot in the league standings behind the Pacific Northwest giants. But on Saturday, Vegas kicked it up another notch to deliver a dominant performance against Seattle, winning 82-74 after a strong first half of play. Everyone on the Aces had a pretty good night, with MVP candidate A’ja Wilson scoring 23 points on 9-of-12 shooting to go with 14 rebounds and Angel McCoughtry earning 13 points and 14 rebounds. Off the bench, Danielle Robinson added 16 points, seven assists and four rebounds and Dearica Hamby and Jackie Young combined for 15 points on 46% shooting.

As Lindsay Gibbs put it on Twitter, the Aces are making their case as one of the best teams in the league this season despite missing two of their best players in Liz Cambage and Kelsey Plum, who suffered an Achilles injury in June. Another reason the Aces’ rise this season might seem surprising is their terrible three-point shooting. In a sport that has quickly embraced the three-point shot, it is peculiar that the Aces seem to have rejected it under coach Bill Laimbeer, attempting a league-lowest 10.9 three-point shots per game (the next-lowest team is the Dream with 18.7 attempts). But to each their own, and Vegas seems to be doing just fine without a three-point shot.

3. Julie Allemand is making a name for herself

Julie Allemand doesn’t really play like a rookie. The Indiana Fever guard has looked incredibly composed and smart on multiple occasions down the stretch of games this season, where one might expect the first-year player to falter. Indiana might be having a lackluster season, sitting on the edge of making the playoffs with a 5-8 overall record, but Allemand might be tossing her hat in the ring for this year’s Rookie of the Year award.

The 24-year-old Belgian is averaging 8.2 points per game, which is on the lower side, but she’s been efficient and strong in other parts of her game. She is shooting 47% from the field and 50% from beyond the arc while averaging 3.7 three-point attempts per game. She’s also dishing out 5.5 assists per game and grabbing 4.2 rebounds per game, which for a 5’8 guard is pretty solid. While the Fever may not be having their strongest season, Allemand’s mature and consistent play is surely a bright spot for this team and bodes well for its future.

4. MVP race: Courtney Vandersloot, welcome to the party

In case you haven’t been paying attention, Chicago Sky guard Courtney Vandersloot is having herself another MVP-caliber season. The 31-year-old star is averaging 13.4 points, a league-high 8.7 assists, 3.4 rebounds and 1.1 steals per game this season with the Sky up in fifth place in the league standings. In a heavily-anticipated game against the Las Vegas Aces on Wednesday, she did not disappoint, putting up 15 points and 15 assists including a perfectly-executed assist on the game-winning play.

She’s also shooting 51% from the field and 40% from three, and averaging just 2.2 turnovers per game. It looks like she will continue to put up big numbers for Chicago this season, and Vanderloot’s name should be right up there alongside Breanna Stewart, A’ja Wilson and Candace Parker for MVP.

5. The Los Angeles Sparks keep on rolling

The Los Angeles Sparks have been balling out in Florida this season, sitting pretty among the top three seeds in the league. They’re a top five team when it comes to points, assists and shooting this season, shooting 47.7% from the field and a league-high 41% from beyond the arc. Defensively, LA has been on a tear as well, led by none other than Candace Parker, who is averaging a league-best 9.4 rebounds, 1.4 steals and 1.3 blocks per game. Throughout her entire career, Parker has never really been a defensive behemoth, but this season she’s rapidly improving on that end of the floor.

With stars like Parker, Nneka Ogwumike, Seimone Augustus and Chelsea Gray stuffing the stat sheet each night along with important contributions from the likes of Brittney Sykes and Sydney Wiese and even the promising development of rookie Te’a Cooper, the Sparks look set for a deep run this year.