00:00The Las Vegas Aces, they are two wins away from their third WNBA title in four years after a dominant 91-78 victory over the Phoenix Mercury in Game 2 of the WNBA Finals.
00:10They've taken full control of the series, thanks in large part to a record-breaking night from Jackie Young and another stellar performance from Asia Wilson.
00:20Joining me now to break down Game 2 and look ahead to Game 3, which will go down in Phoenix, is NBC Sports contributor and host of Honor Turf, Natalie Esquire, joins me now.
00:28Nat, what's going on?
00:31Hi, Dexter. How are you? Thanks for having me.
00:33Always a pleasure to have you to talk some hoops. You know, you're one of my favorite people to talk hoops.
00:37I am doing well. I'm joining these W Finals, as I know you are too. You are out in Vegas covering it.
00:43And, Natalie, you were in the building for Game 2.
00:45And when you look at this game, it was competitive in the first quarter. Then it wasn't.
00:50So, what moment or stretch do you think swung the game in the favor of the Aces here?
00:57Oh, that's an easy question. This is the second quarter.
00:59You know, it was all Aces.
01:02And then by the third quarter, it was just, it's like the Phoenix Mercury didn't show up in that second half.
01:08But it was definitely the second quarter. Like, the game actually started off feeling eerily similar to Game 1, where the Aces kind of got off to a slow start.
01:18Collier Copper got going in the first quarter. The Mercury seemed to be making all their shots, getting all the boards, just, you know, and the Aces just seemed to be lagging, lagging.
01:28And then, you know, as the first quarter went on, they got better. And by the second quarter, they sort of took control of the game and never relinquished it.
01:37Yeah, they never did there. You can talk about that second quarter and how good the Aces looked there.
01:41But we can also talk about this third quarter because Jackie Young had a historic third quarter.
01:45She erupted for 21 points in the third. That is a WNBA Finals record.
01:49And then we also saw in this game a monster double-double for the MVP.
01:56What did you notice about the way the Aces use Young and Wilson offensively here in Game 2?
02:02Yeah, I mean, the two-woman game between them, honestly, is really unstoppable.
02:08Becky Hammond spoke about Jackie Young being aggressive in that third quarter and says she loves when Jack is aggressive because it just opens up so much for them, you know?
02:18And I don't know what happens for Jackie. I was really hoping to ask her, but just didn't get the chance to.
02:26If she saw something, like, in the first half that just made her attack and be so aggressive the way that she was, because when she is playing like that, the Aces are pretty unbeatable.
02:38Asia Wilson puts so much pressure on defenses, right?
02:42And so, you know, Jackie Young basically can go out there and just, you know, have her way.
02:47And she talks about how much pressure Aja takes off of them and, you know, how Aja's being guarded.
02:53But honestly, Jackie puts a lot of pressure on defenses, too.
02:56I think she sometimes doesn't even give herself enough credit.
02:59So between the two of them, you know, there really isn't – you don't have the ability to really crowd Aja the way you may have been able to earlier in the season.
03:08If you do that, then you're going to get killed by the rest of their players.
03:12And so, you know, Jackie was just on a heater in that third quarter.
03:15It seemed like she couldn't miss, also crossing up folks.
03:19So, you know, she was just having herself a game.
03:22And, you know, you see the Aces, the result of it for them was very good.
03:26Oh, Jackie Young absolutely was in her bag in that third quarter.
03:29No doubt about that there.
03:31And then you could talk about the offense and talk about their two stars there and what they did offensively.
03:35But defensively, Las Vegas, they took away Phoenix's perimeter game.
03:39What did the Aces do differently in this one to take away the perimeter game of the Mercury?
03:43And then how can the Mercury counter what the Aces did to take away that perimeter game in Game 3?
03:49Yeah, you know, it's interesting because in the last game, the Aces were struggling when they were playing man.
03:55And so they went to a zone defense, right?
03:59And that seemed to work better for them.
04:00And Nate Tibbetts actually said, you know, I think it was during a practice, but he was asked.
04:07And he said he was actually excited that they felt the need to go to zone so early.
04:11I guess he thought that was like a signal to him that, you know, that's a good thing for them.
04:18But they were playing man again.
04:20And Becky Hammond said in the postgame that she just liked they were doing better.
04:23They were executing on their principles better.
04:25They were more fundamentally sound.
04:27And so they did just a much better job defending.
04:30They really prevented Alyssa Thomas in the middle from being able to just distribute the way that she normally would, right?
04:37She couldn't just get it to her three-point shooters.
04:39And not to mention they weren't hitting shots tonight anyway.
04:42But, like, she was not able to distribute as freely as she would like to.
04:46And she's their engine.
04:47That's why Alyssa Thomas' nickname is the engine.
04:49And if you can cut her off and make it hard on her, then that makes it hard on the rest of the team who relies on her so heavily to distribute the ball to them.
04:59Yeah, and they really took that away.
05:00A.T. was never able to get it going in this one.
05:03Now with the Phoenix going down 2-0 and the series shifting back to them at home in Phoenix, you know they don't want to go down 0-3.
05:11What's the number one area in your eyes, Nat, that the Mercury need to fix in order to avoid falling into an 0-3 hole here?
05:19Yeah, and I realize I don't think I answered the second half of your question earlier.
05:23So I'll just say, like, in general, the Mercury can't get into foul trouble.
05:27Like, not their stars, right?
05:29And so, yes, in game one it was Satu Sabli.
05:33And she even caught a critical technical foul because she got upset when she picked up her fifth foul in game one.
05:40Kind of, like, threw the ball down.
05:42The ref teed her up.
05:43And it was just a really critical time in the game.
05:45And I actually look at that as, like, the part where, like, the momentum started to shift in Vegas' favor.
05:51Because I look at game one and feel like even though Vegas was at home, they stole game one.
05:55Because the Mercury really should have won that game.
05:57They were in control for three-fourths of that game, you know?
06:01And they, you know, when you're on the road, you need to steal one.
06:05Game one is the one you want to steal.
06:06And they should have because they controlled that game for most of the game.
06:09Now you come into game two, you see Alyssa Thomas guarding Asia Wilson more.
06:14And she gets into foul trouble.
06:16And Nate Tibbetts in the postgame said, you know, they haven't had to really deal with that a lot this season.
06:21Alyssa Thomas getting into foul trouble.
06:24So he was sort of managing that on the fly.
06:26So I think those two things, like, you can't have, you know, one of your big three in foul trouble like that.
06:33And we've seen in both games, Kalia Copper got going early.
06:36And then she was sort of quiet later in the game.
06:38And so you really can't have Satu or Alyssa or any, you know, any of the three in foul trouble.
06:45So that's, like, one of the first things they have to do.
06:47And then I think that the Mercury started to settle too much for threes.
06:53And this is something that they're prone to do and can do.
06:55You know, when their three-point shot is falling, they're, you know, pretty hard to beat.
06:59But when it's not sometimes, and we know that Nate Tibbetts is a coach that wants them to shoot threes, but they sometimes, you know, I feel like they were not attacking.
07:08They went away from moving downhill.
07:11The ball was not moving as much as it should have been moving either.
07:15And I didn't think that they were getting great shots.
07:17And Nate Tibbetts also talked about the fact that the threes that they were getting in today's game were not like the ones that they were getting in the last game.
07:24And so I think that they need to get back to moving the ball, but I also think they need to really get back to playing the defense they're known for.
07:32Their defense stirs their offense.
07:33Their defense generates their offense.
07:36They have to get back to playing better defense.
07:39If they do that, they will get better offensive looks and better offensive possessions.
07:44They'll be able to move in transition, and I think they'll have a better game against the Aces.
07:47But you know what?
07:48They're going home, and they're going to have their sixth man available to them.
07:52You know, every team considers their crowd their sixth player.
07:57And so I think they'll be better at home.
07:59They have to win.
08:00It's a must-win game from them.
08:01You cannot fall into a 0-3 deficit.
08:03Like, that basically means you will not win the series.
08:06Yeah, can't do it.
08:07Got to get the win in game three.
08:09If you are the Phoenix Mercury, you heard the keys there from that.
08:12Got to have some better shot quality.
08:13Got to take care of the ball.
08:15Also, got to stay out of foul trouble for their stars.
08:18That's going to definitely be important for them.
08:19They got to get back to playing the defense that Natalie's talked about,
08:22which has sparked the Mercury all season long.
08:25But right now, the Aces, they've got a 2-0 lead in the series
08:28as it shifts to Phoenix in this best-of-seven WNBA final series.
08:32Natalie will be there covering it for NBC Sports and on her turf.
08:36Natalie, always a pleasure talking some basketball with you.
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