Aces Dominate Mercury in Game 2, Take Commanding 2-0 Lead in WNBA Finals

Monday - 06/10/2025 15:15

Las Vegas has a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven Finals series. Here's how it happened.

Multiple Contributors

Oct 6, 2025, 03:26 AM

The No. 2 Las Vegas Aces defeated the No. 4 Phoenix Mercury 91-78 in Game 2 of the 2025 WNBA Finals to go up 2-0 in the series.

Jackie Young had 32 points while four-time MVP A'ja Wilson had 28 points and 14 rebounds.

Despite a quiet scoring performance, Alyssa Thomas passed Courtney Vandersloot to become the all-time leader in WNBA postseason assists, with 386.

Here's what you need to know about everything that happened on Sunday. The best-of-seven series shifts to Phoenix for Game 3 on Wednesday (8 p.m. ET, ESPN).

#Blog">Jump to real-time tracker

How the Aces won

Las Vegas' big three of A'ja Wilson, Jackie Young and Chelsea Gray have played together for five seasons. That experience and connectedness really showed when Las Vegas took control of the game with a 22-10 second-quarter advantage and then essentially buried the Mercury by scoring 30 points in the third, when Young had 21 points, a WNBA Finals record for a quarter.

Editor's Picks

Gray was the epitome of her "Point Gawd" nickname on Sunday with 10 assists, along with 10 points and eight rebounds. She is so familiar with finding Wilson and Young on court, anticipating their moves. Once the Aces started clicking, the Mercury looked a step behind the rest of the game.

The Aces will always say their offense is predicated on defense, and that showed in the second quarter when the Mercury struggled to get any of the looks they wanted. Then even when Phoenix started to create better opportunities, it was too late to matter.

How the Mercury lost

They couldn't guard Wilson without Alyssa Thomas getting into foul trouble, and they couldn't guard Young at all. That said, they started the game strong and had a 27-24 lead after the first quarter. Even then, though, it felt as if Phoenix was in trouble because the offense was so reliant on Kahleah Copper, who finished with 23 points.

Satou Sabally had 22 points, but she took some shots too early in the shot clock, which the Aces were able to turn into transition points. Phoenix also got little from its bench. And the Mercury -- after making 14 3-pointers in a close Game 1 loss -- were 5-of-28 from behind the arc on Sunday. Every time Phoenix started to make a little run, Las Vegas was able to respond and shut down any hope the Mercury had of coming back.

What could decide Game 3?

The Mercury have to wonder what to do when the Aces won the first two games in different ways. Las Vegas rallied to sort of steal Game 1 89-86 behind a great bench output, with 39 points from Dana Evans and Jewell Loyd. Wilson (21 points, 10 rebounds) and Young (10 points, 5 assists) were good in that game Friday, but they were great on Sunday in a blowout. Meanwhile, Gray managed both games well, even though Sunday had a lot less suspense. She has 20 assists thus far in the Finals.

All of ESPN. All in one place.

Watch your favorite events in the newly enhanced ESPN App. Learn more about what plan is right for you. Sign Up Now

The Mercury will get a boost being at home for Games 3 and 4, but they also need to figure out how to slow down the Aces' perimeter offense. At this point, keeping Wilson below 30 points is a positive, and the Mercury have done that in both games. But they've allowed the Aces' guards to decide the outcomes: They had a combined 56 points Sunday after 57 on Friday.

The challenge for Phoenix is twofold: Disrupt Gray's ball distribution and scoring from the other Aces guards. They have a couple of days to try to figure out how. -- Michael Voepel