Storm Stun Aces To Power Winner-Take-All Recreation 3

All good issues should come to an finish. Even on the worst doable time. 

The Las Vegas Aces have been seemingly on the verge of their 18th consecutive win and a seventh straight journey to the WNBA semifinals, however a 16-4 run by the Seattle Storm within the last four-plus minutes of regulation ended Vegas’ historic streak and put the staff on the verge of elimination forward of a winner-take-all Recreation 3 on Thursday. 

SEATTLE IS JUMPING‼️

The Storm take the lead 😳

Watch Aces-Storm on ESPN and the ESPN App pic.twitter.com/lDGxpays5l

— ESPN (@espn) September 17, 2025

It’s considerably laborious to reconcile with the very fact a staff with only one loss since Aug. 2 is now so near elimination, but it surely additionally presents a chance for A’ja Wilson to really cement herself as being worthy of the league’s Most Beneficial Participant award for the fourth time in 5 seasons. 

Wilson has an opportunity to channel her greatest 2012 Japanese Convention Finals Recreation 6 LeBron impression to assist her No. 2 seed Aces keep away from elimination by the hands of the Storm, with whom they’ve a rising rivalry due to Jewell Loyd’s controversial exit from the franchise en path to Las Vegas final offseason.

Extremely Favored

The sportsbooks within the desert actually count on Wilson and firm to deal with enterprise on Thursday, because the Aces opened as heavy 8.5-point favorites for the pivotal contest at Michelob Extremely Area contained in the world-famous Mandalay Bay Resort and On line casino. 

Wilson has averaged a good (by her requirements) 18.7 factors and 9.4 rebounds in Recreation 3s all through her profession in any sequence, though she hasn’t reached the 20-point mark in a Recreation 3 since 2022. Wilson tallied 21 factors and 13 rebounds in Tuesday’s Recreation 2 loss, making 7-of-12 makes an attempt from the sphere, though she was held scoreless for the ultimate seven minutes of the sport.

Noelle Quinn on holding MVP favourite A’ja Wilson scoreless during the last 7 minutes of the 4th:

“Plenty of Dom.”

Expressed how vital Malonga’s size and flexibility was towards Wilson. #WNBA

— christan (no i), ß (@ChristanWNBA) September 17, 2025

Past the historical past between Seattle and Loyd, this sequence is private for the Storm largely due to how little of an opportunity they got to take even one first-round sport from the Aces, a lot much less the sequence. The Caitlin Clark-less Indiana Fever or the Atlanta Dream (that sequence is tied 1-1) will await the winner, which makes this sequence doubtlessly all of the extra vital by way of deciding who will make the WNBA Finals.

Thursday’s sport is about to tip off at 6:30 p.m. in Las Vegas and might be broadcast reside to a nationwide viewers on ESPN2. For the reason that Aces’ official win streak (so far as the WNBA document books are involved) was paused on the conclusion of the common season, the Aces will nonetheless open subsequent season with an opportunity to set the league document with a scorching begin. On a technicality, after all. 

And if the Aces don’t win on Thursday, the common season streak going into subsequent season gained’t be one thing anybody might be trying ahead to celebrating in Las Vegas.