1) The Aces lost their opening game vs The Liberty, a team who has now beaten them in 7 of their last 8 meetings. This offense, which traded away Kelsey Plum in the offseason, is now having their touches dominated by Chelsea Gray and Jackie Young. Young shot 19 times in the opener, tying her second highest mark of the season prior. She posted a 29.5% USG rate along with a team-high 26.3% AST rate.
However, this came at a near complete sacrifice of their biggest acquisition in Jewell Loyd. Loyd ran just 3 Pick-And-Roll sets vs NYL with just 32 total touches,
2) Point A’ja? A’ja Wilson brought the ball up 12 times on Saturday, which was 4 times higher than her 2024 season high of 8. Made sense as NYL looked to bring as much pressure to Chelsea Gray, even full court, with Leonie Fiebich as possible. As you could further presume, she also led in touches at 91. For reference, only 3 NBA players averaged more touches than that per game this season, despite their games being 8 minutes longer.
Priced at just 1.5 assists vs Connecticut, for those who can find a market for it.
3) The Aces are facing a Sun team who also lost their opener to The Mystics. The key to this loss was their transition defense, as they surrendered 23 fastbreak points (league high) and 21 points off TOVs (11th). The Mystics guards of Citron, Sykes and Melbourne each notched 15+ Pts each, combining for 57 of WSH’s 90 total points.
Nelson-Ododa is likely to match with Wilson while Charles takes Stokes.
4) The Aces surrendered a league-high 56 PITP to the Liberty in their opener, making up over 60% of their total point production. Keep in mind that they allowed this figure to the league’s leader in 3PA per game last season, just getting carved up.
Meanwhile, Tina Charles led the W in Post-Ups in her opener at 13.
5) The Sun in the offseason denied Marina Mabrey’s trade request, to which Arike Ogunbowale said that she would be throwing up shots all next season if her trade was denied. Mabrey potentially listened, shooting 5-21 in her opener along a 27.4% USG.
The Sun new HC, Rachid Meziane, is the first Europen head coach in WNBA history.
6) The new double-big “Dream Duo” takes on The Fever, though ATL in their opening game actually led the W in 3PA – shooting 36 vs WSH. This aligns well with the Fever’s main weakness: their perimeter. After allowing the 2nd most 3PA per game last season at 25.5, they continued that trend to allowing 27 to Chicago.
Last season, Rhyne Howard got up 11 3PA per meeting, making 4+ in each contest.
7) What the Dream frontcourt did get to accomplish was success on the glass, with each of Griner/Jones notching 8+ rebounds. Chicago’s frontcourt just had their own success vs Indiana, with Reese and Cardoso notching 24 rebounds.
However, these two went a combined 0/9 to their respective rebound lines vs Indiana last season, with neither logging more than 6.
8) Aliyah Boston after a great Unrivaled campaign also notched 19 Pts off 12 FGA in her opening game. He log vs ATL last season was impressive, averaging 23.7 PPG off 17 FGA per game her three games with 30+ minutes. IND won all three of these games by single digits.
Both her and Howard can thrive in the PnR as Dream looked to pressure Clark high.