The Las Vegas Aces took a commanding 2-0 lead in the 2025 WNBA Finals with a 91-78 win over the Phoenix Mercury in Game 2 on Sunday afternoon. This is the first best-of-seven series in WNBA history, but in NBA history teams that go up 2-0 in a best-of-seven series are 331-28.
The first half was a back-and-forth affair. In the first quarter alone, the Mercury jumped in front 7-0, the Aces responded with a 10-0 burst and the Mercury closed on a 6-0 run to regain the advantage. The most important stretch of the game came late in the second quarter when the Aces went on a 19-4 rampage to build a nine-point lead at the break.
The Mercury never recovered from the Aces' big run right before the half. Jackie Young set a Finals record with 21 points in the third quarter to push the Aces' advantage up to 15 heading into the fourth, and the home team led by as many as 22 in the final frame. While the Mercury's reserves made a little run in the closing minutes, there was never any doubt about the outcome.
Young finished with 32 points to tie her playoff career-high. A'ja Wilson added 28 points, 14 rebounds and three assists, and Chelsea Gray chipped in 10 points, eight rebounds, 10 assists, three steals and three blocks. Young and Wilson's 60 combined points were the second-most by a pair of teammates in a Finals game in league history.
Kahleah Copper had 23 points to lead the Mercury, while Satou Sabally had 22 of her own. Alyssa Thomas, who dealt with foul trouble, was limited to 10 points, six rebounds and five assists. As a team, the Mercury shot 5 of 28 from 3-point range.
Game 3 is set for Wednesday night in Phoenix.
Young bounces back from rough Game 1 with historic outing
Jackie Young had a tough time in Game 1 of the Finals. She had more fouls than made baskets, missed all of her 3-point attempts and finished with 10 points on 3 of 13 from the field. The Aces escaped with a victory anyway, but needed more from their second-best player moving forward.
They got it in Game 2.
Young made her first shot of the day -- a pull-up 3-pointer off staggered screens from A'ja Wilson and NaLyssa Smith -- and by the end of the first quarter already had as many baskets as she did in the entirety of Game 1. It wasn't until after the half, however, that Young really got going.
Young decided to start calling her own number in the third quarter, and the Mercury didn't have an answer. "I didn't call anything. She was just going," Aces coach Becky Hammon said. "We have a couple play calls for her, but it was just really her being aggressive and being in attack mode. For me, I'm always spurring her on to be in attack mode."
Time and again, Young used her strong frame to work her way into the lane where she scored an array of little flip shots and leaners. And when the Mercury went under on screens to try and keep her away from the basket, she buried jumpers. With less than a second remaining in the third, she drew a foul and calmly made both free throws to push the Aces' advantage to 15.
All told, Young poured in 21 points on 8 of 11 from the field in the third and set a new Finals record for points in a quarter. The Mercury as a team had 24 points on 9 of 15 shooting.
"She doesn't really surprise me anymore," Hammon said. "She's a bad, bad girl."
Young finished with 32 points and eight rebounds on 12 of 20 from the field to tie her playoff career-high in scoring, which she set a week ago in Game 5 of the semifinals against the Indiana Fever. She also became the fifth player in Finals history to score 30 points on at least 60% shooting, joining Sheryl Swoopes (2000), Nykesha Sales (2004), Seimone Augustus (2011) and Breanna Stewart (2020).
Together, Young and A'ja Wilson, who went for 28 points and 14 rebounds, combined for 60 points -- the second-most by a pair of teammates in a Finals game. Wilson could not have been happier.
"Oh, man, it's a joy. Take the numbers away, I'm just so proud of Jackie honestly," Wilson said. "She's a perfectionist, and when you see someone that works so hard every single day, and then you get to see the hard work paying off, it's a beautiful thing to witness. I'm so grateful just to be her teammate, to come into work with her every single day. I'm a pain in the ass sometimes when she's not doing her job because I know that it's there. I know that Jackie Young is there, so I try every single day to bring it out of her.
"To be able to witness it on court -- you did some nasty stuff today. It's crazy. But to be able to witness it and live it, it's been tons of fun."
In the playoffs, Young is now averaging 20.6 points, 4.8 rebounds and 4.9 assists on 52.1% shooting. In WNBA history, the only other players to average 20/4/4 for an entire postseason (minimum seven games played) are Cappie Pondexter (2007), Diana Taurasi (2014, 2018) and Maya Moore (2016).
If Young can keep up this level of play and help the Aces win their third title in the last four years, this would go down as an all-time playoff run.
"People were raising their eyebrows when we drafted her at 1, and she didn't win Rookie of the Year," Wilson said.
"Everyone's story is so different, but Jackie, her evolution has been so great, and that ceiling is so high. It's really no ceiling because she's shattering it. Every young guard that wants to come in the league should take a page out of Jackie's book of working hard because it's going to pay off."
