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The Las Vegas Aces would not have won Game 1 of the WNBA Finals on Friday night without the contributions of Dana Evans and Jewell Loyd.
Both players came off the bench to put up big numbers for the Aces. Evans had a game-high tying 21 points, including four steals, and Loyd added 18 points. Las Vegas defeated the Phoenix Mercury 89-86 at Michelob ULTRA Arena.
Game 2 of this best-of-7 series is Sunday back at Michelob ULTRA Arena.
Las Vegas got 41 points from its bench, and Evans gave the Aces the lead for good when she made a three with just under four minutes to go.
Aces coach Becky Hammon feels very confident going to her bench.
“We’ve got options,” she said. “I mean, Jewell, you know what Jewell has been. She’s been in this league a long time. But Dana is a little scorer. I mean, she is a problem. You saw it in the previous series: Indiana switched their whole defense whenever she came into the game. They switched to their zone to try to keep her out of that paint. But I thought we responded well in the second half. Even some of the shots they hit, they hit some tough ones, and you’ve just got to weather those storms. But there’s definitely things that we know we can do better.”
League MVP A’ja Wilson, who had 21 points, 10 rebounds, and five assists, and a pair of blocked shots, says she grateful for Evans and Loyd.
“Yeah, they are our key factors,” Wilson said. “I’ve said multiple times that Dana is our battery. She makes us play at a different pace. I tell her we go, she goes. That’s a quick pace, but we are always going to try to follow her because we know she’s very hard to stop in this league, very hard to keep in front of. When she’s able to get downhill and get good looks, it plays into our favor. Also, when it comes to Jewell, this has always been Jewell. These two people particularly are two of the most hardworking people that I see in practice every single day. They want every drill to be perfection. So when it comes to these type of games, it comes as no surprise to me because I’m blessed to see it every single day. But I’m so glad they can share their gift with the world because I know they probably go unnoticed a little bit, but they show up on time always, and we’re grateful for that.”
According to Evans, she is willing to do whatever it takes to win.
“I just want to win really bad,” she said. “Whatever that looks like, whatever my teammates need from me, I’m going to do whatever it is to win. We’re not satisfied with this — obviously we need to win Game 1 and Game 2, but it’s just the first game. So we don’t want to get too high and we don’t want to get too low. We’ve got to stay steady and stay locked in and focused.”
Aces could have easily lost Game 1, but fortunately for them, they have options off the bench, and Evans and Loyd were the right options on Friday night.
Jackie Young had 10 points and five assists, and Chelsea Gray dished out 10 assists to go with eight points and seven rebounds for the Aces
For Phoenix v, Kahleah Copper scored 21 to lead five Mercury players in double figures, Satou Sabally had 19, and Alyssa Thomas notched a 15-point, 10-rebound double-double.
Photo: Brandon Todd/NBAE via Getty Images)