# 2018 Las Vegas Aces season

The 2018 WNBA season was the 22nd season for the Las Vegas Aces franchise of the WNBA. This was the franchise's inaugural season in Las Vegas, after moving from San Antonio during the off season. The season tips off on May 20.
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

| 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 |
| February 1, 2018 | Signed C Carolyn Swords |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| February 26, 2018 | Re-signed G/F Sequoia Holmes, F Cierra Burdick, Signed F Ivey Slaughter |
| March 13, 2018 | Re-signed G Sydney Colson |
| March 20, 2018 | Re-signed F Valeriane Ayayi |
| April 11, 2018 | Signed G Jacki Gemelos |
| May 19, 2018 | Signed G Lindsay Allen |
| May 23, 2018 | Signed G Kelsey Plum and G Kayla McBride |

## Game log
### Pre-season

2018 pre-season game log :
May: 1–1 (Home: 1–0; Road: 0–1)
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceRecord
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)
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceRecord
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)
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceRecord
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)
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceRecord
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)
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceRecord
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
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 vte | 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
### 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 |
| A'ja Wilson | WNBA Rookie of the Month - June | July 2, 2018 |
| A'ja Wilson | WNBA Western Conference Player of the Week | July 9, 2018 |
| Kayla McBride | WNBA All-Star Selection | July 17, 2018 |
| A'ja Wilson | WNBA All-Star Selection | July 17, 2018 |
| A'ja Wilson | WNBA Rookie of the Month - July | August 1, 2018 |
| A'ja Wilson | WNBA Rookie of the Month - August | August 20, 2018 |
| A'ja Wilson | WNBA Rookie of the Year Award | September 9, 2018 |