2018 Las Vegas Aces season

The 2018 Las Vegas Aces season was the franchise's 22nd season in the Women's National Basketball Association. This was the franchise's inaugural season in Las Vegas - after relocating from San Antonio and Utah. ^[2] The season tipped off on May 20, 2018 and was also the first season under head coach Bill Laimbeer.^[3]

2018 Las Vegas Aces season
Coach	Bill Laimbeer
Arena	Mandalay Bay Events Center
Attendance	5,208 per game
Results
Record	14–20 (.412)
Place	6th (Western)
Playoff finish	Did not qualify
Team Leaders
Points	A'ja Wilson – 20.7 ppg
Rebounds	A'ja Wilson – 8.0 rpg
Assists	Kelsey Plum – 4.0 apg
Media
Television	AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain,[1] ESPN2, NBATV
← 2017 season 2019 season →

The team started the season slowly in May, posting an 0–4 record. June was a month of improvement, as the Aces went 6–7, including a win over Seattle away. July was the team's best month of the year. The Aces posted a 6–2 record, with their only 2 losses being to Los Angeles. The team's playoff push fell short in August, when the team posted a 2–7 record including the league's first forfeited game. Ultimately the forfeit proved costly, as the team missed out on the playoffs by 1 game and finished 9th in the league overall.

Transactions

WNBA draft

See also: 2018 WNBA draft

Round	Pick	Player	Nationality	School/Team/Country
1	1	A'ja Wilson	United States	South Carolina
2	13	Jaime Nared	United States	Tennessee
3	25	Raigyne Louis	United States	LSU
3	32	Jill Barta	United States	Gonzaga

Trades/Roster Changes

Date	Details
February 1, 2018	Signed F Tamera Young[4]
February 1, 2018	Signed C Carolyn Swords[5]
February 1, 2018	Received Indiana Fever's 2nd round pick in 2019 WNBA draft in exchange for C Kayla Alexander and Las Vegas Aces' 3rd round pick in the 2019 WNBA Draft.[6]
February 2, 2018	Received C Kelsey Bone from Phoenix Mercury in exchange for the 26th pick in the 2018 WNBA Draft and Las Vegas Aces' 2nd round pick in the 2019 WNBA Draft.[7]
February 26, 2018	Re-signed G/F Sequoia Holmes, F Cierra Burdick, Signed F Ivey Slaughter[8]
March 13, 2018	Re-signed G Sydney Colson[9]
March 20, 2018	Re-signed F Valeriane Ayayi[10]
April 11, 2018	Signed G Jacki Gemelos[11]
May 19, 2018	Signed G Lindsay Allen[12]
May 23, 2018	Signed G Kelsey Plum and G Kayla McBride[13]

Roster

2018 Las Vegas Aces roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. No. Nat. Name Height Weight DOB From Yrs G 15 Allen, Lindsay 5' 8" (1.73m) 144 lb (65kg) 1995-03-20 Notre Dame 1 C 3 Bone, Kelsey 6' 4" (1.93m) 220 lb (100kg) 1991-12-31 Texas A&M 4 F 12 Coffey, Nia 6' 1" (1.85m) 180 lb (82kg) 1995-05-21 Northwestern 1 F 5 Hamby, Dearica 6' 3" (1.91m) 189 lb (86kg) 1993-11-06 Wake Forest 3 C 20 Harrison, Isabelle 6' 3" (1.91m) 183 lb (83kg) 1993-09-27 Tennessee 2 G 4 Jefferson, Moriah 5' 6" (1.68m) 123 lb (56kg) 1994-03-08 Connecticut 2 G 21 McBride, Kayla 5' 10" (1.78m) 174 lb (79kg) 1992-06-25 Notre Dame 4 G/F 31 Nared, Jaime 6' 2" (1.88m) 160 lb (73kg) 1995-09-14 Tennessee R C 19 Park Ji-su 6' 5" (1.96m) 206 lb (93kg) 1998-12-06 South Korea R G 10 Plum, Kelsey 5' 8" (1.73m) 145 lb (66kg) 1994-08-24 Washington 1 C 8 Swords, Carolyn 6' 6" (1.98m) 215 lb (98kg) 1989-07-18 Boston College 6 C 22 Wilson, A'ja 6' 4" (1.93m) 195 lb (88kg) 1996-08-08 South Carolina R F 1 Young, Tamera 6' 2" (1.88m) 175 lb (79kg) 1986-10-30 James Madison 10	Head coach Bill Laimbeer (Notre Dame) Assistant coaches Vickie Johnson (Louisiana Tech) Kelly Raimon Strength and conditioning coach Laura Ramus (Wayne State (MI)) Legend (C) Team captain (DP) Unsigned draft pick (FA) Free agent (S) Suspended Injured

Game log

Pre-season

2018 pre-season game log
May: 1–1 (Home: 1–0; Road: 0–1) Game Date Team Score High points High rebounds High assists Location Attendance Record 1 May 6 China W 98–63 Wilson (20) Tied (7) Tied (5) Mandalay Bay Events Center 1–0 2 May 13 @ Dallas L 55–68 Young (11) Wilson (12) Slaughter (3) College Park Center 1–1
2018 pre-season schedule

Regular season

2018 game log Total: 14–20 (Home: 8–9; Road: 6–11)
May: 0–4 (Home: 0–1; Road: 0–3) Game Date Team Score High points High rebounds High assists Location Attendance Record 1 May 20 @ Connecticut L 65–101 Young (23) Wilson (10) Bone (3) Mohegan Sun Arena 6,637 0–1 2 May 22 @ Washington L 70–75 Wilson (16) Wilson (8) Allen (6) Capital One Arena 4,509 0–2 3 May 27 Seattle L 98–105 Wilson (27) Wilson (8) Allen (6) Mandalay Bay Events Center 7,662 0–3 4 May 31 @ Seattle L 74–101 Wilson (21) Tied (6) Plum (6) KeyArena 5,235 0–4
June : 6–7 (Home: 3–4; Road: 3–3) Game Date Team Score High points High rebounds High assists Location Attendance Record 5 June 1 Washington W 85–73 Wilson (26) Wilson (12) Tied (4) Mandalay Bay Events Center 5,575 1–4 6 June 3 @ Chicago L 90–95 Wilson (22) Park (6) Allen (8) Wintrust Arena 5,052 1–5 7 June 8 Atlanta L 83–87 Wilson (20) Wilson (9) Allen (7) Mandalay Bay Events Center 5,913 1–6 8 June 10 @ Phoenix L 66–72 Wilson (17) Park (11) Plum (6) Talking Stick Resort Arena 8,471 1–7 9 June 12 @ Indiana W 101–92 (OT) Wilson (35) Wilson (13) Young (9) Bankers Life Fieldhouse 5,437 2–7 10 June 13 @ New York W 78–63 Hamby (17) Tied (4) Allen (7) Westchester County Center 1,419 3–7 11 June 15 @ Dallas L 67–77 McBride (22) Young (9) Young (4) College Park Center 4,549 3–8 12 June 17 Phoenix L 80–92 Wilson (21) Coffey (12) Plum (5) Mandalay Bay Events Center 4,432 3–9 13 June 19 @ Seattle W 87–77 Wilson (25) Wilson (15) Tied (6) KeyArena 6,395 4–9 14 June 22 New York W 88–78 McBride (27) Wilson (14) Wilson (4) Mandalay Bay Events Center 5,478 5–9 15 June 24 Minnesota L 73–88 McBride (18) Wilson (7) Plum (5) Mandalay Bay Events Center 4,814 5–10 16 June 27 Dallas L 91–97 McBride (38) Wilson (15) Wilson (8) Mandalay Bay Events Center 5,246 5–11 17 June 29 Los Angeles W 94–78 Wilson (29) Tied (9) Tied (5) Mandalay Bay Events Center 5,124 6–11
July : 6–2 (Home: 3–1; Road: 3–1) Game Date Team Score High points High rebounds High assists Location Attendance Record 18 July 1 @ Los Angeles L 71–87 Young (16) Park (6) Young (8) Staples Center 12,003 6–12 19 July 5 Chicago W 84–80 McBride (28) Swords (12) McBride (7) Mandalay Bay Events Center 4,699 7–12 20 July 7 Connecticut W 94–90 Wilson (34) Wilson (14) Plum (10) Mandalay Bay Events Center 3,363 8–12 21 July 10 @ Chicago W 98–74 McBride (18) Tied (8) 3 Tied (4) Wintrust Arena 7,696 9–12 22 July 13 @ Minnesota W 85–77 McBride (24) Wilson (15) McBride (9) Target Center 9,813 10–12 23 July 15 Los Angeles L 78–99 McBride (18) Tied (8) Jefferson (3) Mandalay Bay Events Center 4,810 10–13 24 July 19 @ Phoenix W 85–82 McBride (27) Wilson (12) McBride (3) Talking Stick Resort Arena 8,587 11–13 25 July 22 Indiana W 88–74 Wilson (24) Tied (10) 3 Tied (4) Mandalay Bay Events Center 5,368 12–13
August : 2–7 (Home: 2–3; Road: 0–4) Game Date Team Score High points High rebounds High assists Location Attendance Record 26 August 1 Phoenix L 93–104 Wilson (29) 3 Tied (6) Tied (5) Mandalay Bay Events Center 5,129 12–14 27 August 3 @ Washington L via forfeit[14] – – – Capital One Arena 0 12–15 28 August 5 @ Connecticut L 88–109 Wilson (24) 5 Tied (3) Tied (4) Mohegan Sun Arena 6,791 12–16 29 August 7 @ Atlanta L 100–109 Plum (20) Swords (9) Plum (13) McCamish Pavilion 4,033 12–17 30 August 9 Minnesota L 73–89 Wilson (18) Swords (7) Young (4) Mandalay Bay Events Center 4,497 12–18 31 August 11 Indiana W 92–74 Plum (20) Wilson (8) Tied (4) Mandalay Bay Events Center 5,213 13–18 32 August 15 New York W 85–72 Wilson (19) Young (8) Young (4) Mandalay Bay Events Center 7,159 14–18 33 August 17 @ Dallas L 102–107 Wilson (34) Wilson (7) McBride (12) College Park Center 6,209 14–19 34 August 19 Atlanta L 78–93 Wilson (21) Hamby (8) Plum (8) Mandalay Bay Events Center 5,737 14–20
2018 season schedule

Standings

#	Western Conference v t e	W	L	PCT	GB	Home	Road	Conf.
1	Seattle Storm (1)	26	8	.765	–	13–4	13–4	11–5
2	Phoenix Mercury (5)	20	14	.588	6	9–8	11–6	8–8
3	Los Angeles Sparks (6)	19	15	.559	7	11–6	8–9	9–7
4	Minnesota Lynx (7)	18	16	.529	8	9–8	9–8	9–7
5	Dallas Wings (8)	15	19	.441	11	10–7	5–12	7–9
6	e –Las Vegas Aces	14	20	.412	12	8–9	6–11	4–12

Notes

(#) – Conference Standing, Playoff Seeds shown to the right of team name

x – Qualified for playoffs

e – Eliminated from playoffs

Statistics

Legend
GP	Games played	GS	Games started	MPG	Minutes per game	RPG	Rebounds per game
APG	Assists per game	SPG	Steals per game	BPG	Blocks per game	PPG	Points per game
FG%	Field-goal percentage	3P%	3-point field-goal percentage	FT%	Free-throw percentage	TO	Turnovers per game
PF	Fouls per game		Team leader		League leader

Regular season

Player	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
A'ja Wilson	33	33	30.6	46.2	0.0	77.4	8.0	2.2	0.8	1.7	20.7
Kayla McBride	31	31	32.3	44.9	39.3	91.7	3.9	3.5	1.1	0.1	18.2
Tamera Young	33	25	26.7	40.8	30.8	70.7	5.1	2.8	1.0	0.2	9.9
Kelsey Plum	31	27	25.5	46.7	43.9	87.5	2.4	4.0	0.8	0.2	9.5
Dearica Hamby	33	0	14.4	52.6	28.9	74.2	3.6	1.2	0.7	0.3	7.4
Moriah Jefferson	16	0	15.7	37.9	20.0	81.0	1.3	2.1	0.6	0.0	5.4
Nia Coffey	28	10	13.8	38.0	40.0	61.8	2.4	0.6	0.3	0.2	5.3
Carolyn Swords	26	12	14.5	55.7	0.0	87.5	4.7	0.9	0.2	0.7	3.9
Lindsay Allen	24	6	14.9	38.4	6.3	70.8	1.3	2.9	0.6	0.0	3.1
Kelsey Bone	32	10	10.8	50.0	0.0	50.0	2.2	1.2	0.1	0.1	2.8
Ji-Su Park	32	11	13.0	38.8	0.0	61.9	3.3	0.9	0.3	0.6	2.8
Jaime Nared	31	0	9.1	30.0	22.6	85.7	1.5	0.5	0.4	0.1	2.5

Awards and honors

Recipient	Award	Date awarded	Ref.
A'ja Wilson	WNBA Rookie of the Month - June	July 2, 2018	[15]
	WNBA Western Conference Player of the Week	July 9, 2018	[16]
Kayla McBride	WNBA All-Star Selection	July 17, 2018	[17]
A'ja Wilson
A'ja Wilson	WNBA Rookie of the Month - July	August 1, 2018	[18]
	WNBA Rookie of the Month - August	August 20, 2018	[19]
	WNBA Rookie of the Year Award	September 9, 2018	[20]