LAS VEGAS – For the Aces to give themselves the best shot at beating the Phoenix Mercury in the WNBA Finals, they had to set the tone with a Game 1 victory at home.
If I told you beforehand that A’ja Wilson and Jackie Young would combine for just 31 points on 10-of-29 (34 percent) shooting, you would have justifiably assumed the Mercury walked out of Michelob Ultra Arena on Friday night with a 1-0 series lead in tow.
Not quite.
Despite their starting lineup scoring just 47 points, the Aces managed to stun Phoenix, 89-86, in a come-from-behind victory on the shoulders of a bench performance that will go down in WNBA Finals lore forever.
Changing Gears
Reserve guard Dana Evans established herself as the Aces’ go-to scorer and most stifling defender in Friday’s victory, scoring 21 points on 8-of-13 shooting (5-of-6 from 3) while also tallying four steals, becoming the first player in WNBA history to record five 3-pointers and four steals in a championship series game.
Evans scored nine of her 21 points in a fourth-quarter outburst that saw her make 3-of-4 attempts from 3 in the frame, including the biggest basket of the night on either side. With 3:40 remaining, Evans put the Aces ahead 85-82 and for good with her fifth triple of the night, capping a dream performance for a player who received her fair share of criticism this season.
“(Evans) is probably the fastest person on the court,” Aces coach Becky Hammon said of her 5’6 maestro. “I call her Gears, because I like her to get to different gears. She’s an impact player, right? For somebody to be that size and you really feel her on both ends, especially in that second half, just digging it up, going for balls, and then obviously we know that baby can shoot.”
Run back Dana Evans’ clutch buckets from the @LVAces Game 1 dub! ⬇️
21 PTS | 5 3PM | 4 STL | 8-13 FG | 5-6 3PT
✔️ 1st player in Finals history with 5 3PM & 4 STL
✔️Only reserve ever with 20+ PTS & 5+ 3PM
✔️Just the 8th bench player to score 20+ in a Finals game… pic.twitter.com/cQ2dhObvAy— WNBA (@WNBA) October 4, 2025
Jewell Of A Night
Another Ace who went through the fire this season just to emerge with a big-time Game 1 performance was none other than prized offseason acquisition Jewell Loyd. While the rest of the offense struggled to find a rhythm, Loyd served as the proverbial pacemaker with 13 points in the first half on her way to an 18-point performance of her own off the bench.
“When it comes to Jewel, this has always been Jewel,” Wilson said. “These two people particularly (Evans and Loyd) are two of the hardest working people that I see in practice every single day. They want every drill to be perfection. So when it comes to these type of games, it comes by no surprise to me because I see it.”
Lost Opportunity
On Phoenix’s end, the loss felt particularly devastating. More so than the previous Game 1 defeats they’ve suffered in the two series leading up to this. Despite being on the road, they were the more rested team and they had been playing objectively better basketball since the beginning of the postseason.
Beyond that, the Mercury got a historic first-half shooting performance from Kahleah Copper, who went 6-of-8 from the field and 5-of-6 from 3-point range on her way to a 19-point first half. Copper’s five 3-pointers before the break matched Mercury legend Diana Taurasi’s mark for most 3-pointers in a WNBA Finals half. Ironically, Taurasi’s historic torching also came against the Aces at Michelob Ultra Arena in Game 2 of the 2021 WNBA Semifinals.
Copper was held to just two points in the second half, however, and her teammates Alyssa Thomas and Satou Sabally also faltered down the stretch. The overwhelming sentiment after the game was that Phoenix had let a golden opportunity slip away.
The Mercury won’t have a better shooting half this series than the first half of Game 1, and Wilson and Young likely won’t play that poorly again for the Aces either. Nonetheless, Game 2 is approaching must-win territory for Phoenix even with the new seven-game format.
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