A'ja Wilson, Breanna Stewart hold MVP showdown as Las Vegas Aces even WNBA semifinals with Seattle Storm

LAS VEGAS — They were the All-Star Game captains this season and one of them will be the WNBA's season MVP when that award is announced Sept. 7. On Wednesday, in what felt like a must-win game for Las Vegas, the Aces' A'ja Wilson and the Storm's Breanna Stewart both played brilliantly. But Wilson's team came out on top 78-73 to even this WNBA best-of-five semifinal series at 1-1.

«Obviously a couple of individual great performances by the two best players in the league,» Aces coach Becky Hammon said afterward.

Wilson had 33 points and 13 rebounds; Stewart had 32 and seven. Each had three blocked shots. It was just the third time in WNBA playoff history that two opposing players had 30-point performances in a game. And it was the first time two playoff foes did that plus had at least three blocks.

Both were No. 1 draft picks, Stewart in 2016 and Wilson in 2018. Stewart was the league MVP in 2018 and Wilson in 2020. This year, that award will come down to the two of them again, just like it did in 2020, when they met in the WNBA Finals, won by the Storm.

In August, Stewart turned 28 years old and Wilson 26; they are not just the league's brightest stars, they are also right in the prime of their careers.

«That's what grows the game. Everyone loves a good matchup,» Wilson said. «Everyone loves to be like, 'Oh, what's going to happen here?' I think that's what draws fans and attention to us. When you look at the NBA, when you look at football, anything, there's always a good matchup that everyone's tuned into no matter what.»

For Stewart, who went 12-of-23 from the field and 5-of-5 from the foul line, this was her eighth consecutive playoff game scoring at least 20 points. She had 24 points in Sunday's Game 1 Storm win.

Wils