The Las Vegas Aces unveiled their championship banner and had a ring ceremony ahead of the game where Dearica Hamby former Aces player received her ring as well from owner Mark Davis.

That was the highlight of the game for anyone on the Sparks as the team started the game without key players due to illness/injury as the team announced that Jordin Canada, Chiney Ogwumike, and Layshia Clarendon were ruled out of the game due to non-COVID related illness.

Playing with a not entirely healthy team, the Sparks fell behind early and never got within reach of the Aces in a 93-65 blowout loss.

In the first quarter the Sparks found it hard to connect to make key baskets, however, they continued with their defensive strategy to try and slow the Aces down. Nneka Ogwumike played 9 minutes and scored 10 points in the first half led the Sparks with a total of 16 points. Karlie Samuelson stepped up with 13 points and made 3 of her 4 three-point attempts. She also had a career-high of 7 rebounds in a single game.

The third quarter allowed the Sparks to reset and outscore the Aces 23-20 despite still being behind. It was an impressive turnaround offensively as the Sparks struggled to make those shots early on. Also, Rae Burrell who was signed to a hardship contract earlier today, entered the game in the third quarter and played a total of 15 minutes scoring 5 points.

The Sparks had a total of 10 turnovers in a loss to the Aces on Thursday but on Saturday they had 19 while the Aces only had 9 turnovers.

The Aces able to outrun the Sparks and continued to dominate offensively as lead ingscorer A’ja Wilson was able to get 23 points. Kelsey Plum had 19 points and Jackie Young added 16 points. They led the team to a 28-point victory as they continue their season undefeated at 3-0.

The Sparks will play Phoenix Mercury this Friday and will look to turn their current 1-2 record.