Jackie Young's 32 propels Aces to Game 2 win over Mercury - ESPN

LAS VEGAS — Jackie Young told Aces coach Becky Hammon that she'd be ready to perform in Game 2 of the WNBA Finals.

It didn't matter that it was a noon tipoff. Or that Young didn't have her legs underneath her in the first game of the series. She was ready to contribute.

Finishing with a game-high 32 points, Young became the first Aces player to have a 30-point game in the Finals in franchise history as Las Vegas beat the Phoenix Mercury 91-78 on Sunday to go up 2-0 in the series. The 22-point jump from Game 1 is tied for the fourth-highest game-to-game scoring increase within a Finals series, according to ESPN Insights.

«Jackie was just going,» Hammon said. «When she gets a couple to go down, it's really difficult for her to be defended well.… She is a bad, bad girl.»

Less than 48 hours before Sunday's early tipoff, Hammon said Young was a bit fatigued in Friday's Game 1 of the Finals — a hangover from carrying the team to the series-deciding victory in the semifinals just a few days before. Young told Hammon she needed to be subbed out of Friday's game. On Saturday, she sat out of practice and underwent hours of treatment.

And on Sunday, she was ready.

Young scored 21 of her 32 points in the third quarter — the most points in a quarter in WNBA Finals history. It was also the most in any playoff quarter since 2006, when the WNBA switched from halves to quarters.

Young said her third-quarter performance came down to aggression and making the right reads.

«I am so proud of Jackie,» A'ja Wilson said. «I'm a pain in the ass sometimes when she's not doing her job because I know that it is there. I know that Jackie Young is there, so I try to bring it out of her.

»To be able to witness [her] on the court, [she] did some nasty