LAS VEGAS — Las Vegas is known for its gaudy casinos, lavish shows and over-the-top atmosphere.

One of the most-visited cities in the world, the Nevada hotspot offers a prime attraction for tourists: The bustling Strip, which features more than 30 casinos, including Mandalay Bay.

Inside the resort and casino, past a nightclub, restaurants, poker tables and the vibrant lights of ringing slot machines, is Michelob Ultra Arena – home of the Las Vegas Aces.

With their up-tempo style of play and high-octane offense, the Aces reflect the city they call home. With a WNBA-high 90.4 points per game, the Aces spend four months of the year bringing another brand of flashy excitement to the Strip.

When they leave the court, though, Sin City’s basketball team retreats to a much quieter way of life.

“If I’m relaxing on a day off, I’m probably not leaving the apartment,” Sydney Colson said with a laugh.

If she does venture out, Colson usually spends her free time shopping or going to see a movie – but it has to be something worth seeing on the big screen to get her to journey to a theater.

“I want to go see the new Jordan Peele movie ‘Nope,’ and ‘The Woman King’ with Viola Davis,” Colson said. “Action-type stuff, I want to see on the big screen.”

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(Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)

Kelsey Plum is another player who knows the comforts of home well. She missed the 2020 season with a torn Achilles, and that coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic kept her indoors.

Now, Plum is taking advantage of her health – both on the court and off. But like Colson, she keeps things relaxed.

For locals, Las Vegas is entirely different than it is for tourists. 

“All the people who come here stay on the Strip, and that’s great, but I haven’t been on the Strip in years,” Plum said. “I mean, I play here, but I don’t really stay here. So, (if you live in Vegas), it’s chill. There’s a great energy, and a lot of cool people here.”

When she has the time, Plum likes to explore the city via food. Trying out restaurants off the beaten path is her favorite thing to do in Las Vegas.

“I recently went to this place called Thai Curry, and it was really good,” she said. “It was in a strip-mall type place. I got pad Thai and curry, and it was awesome.”

Rookie Aisha Sheppard is new to the WNBA and to Las Vegas. She still likes to venture out to the more crowded parts of town, mostly to indulge in her favorite hobby – shopping.

The rookie didn’t get to experiment much with fashion in college, so now she loves the art of a tunnel fit.

“My style is very versatile,” she said. “I have a couple of different signature pieces, but then I can also go to H&M and just wear a regular outfit and I can still make it my own.”

Her favorite purchase to date is a pair of Off-White sunglasses. The glasses were a splurge, which Sheppard said she doesn’t normally do. And though she’s explored places like Caesars Palace to look in shops, walking the Strip is also something the rookie doesn’t do. 

Instead, like Colson and Plum, she prefers to hang out in the more relaxing parts of the city.

“It’s kind of the calm before the storm, and the calm is everywhere outside of the Strip, or downtown,” she said. “And then in the Strip then you’ll run into a little bit of that chaos.”

Being a resident, Jackie Young said, is like “not even living in Vegas.” At least not in the stereotypical Sin City style.

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(Quinn Harris/Getty Images)

The craziest place Young goes? TopGolf.

It’s one of her favorite activities to do in the city, and while she won’t go as far as to say she’s good at it, Young said she can get some distance on the ball when she swings.

TopGolf is an activity the Aces sometimes do together. Young couldn’t pinpoint the best player on the team, but she was quick to call out her least-skilled teammate.

“A’ja is the worst,” she said with a smile.

Wilson is good at a lot of things – and she has brand new Defensive Player of the Year and Most Valuable Player trophies to prove it – but the Aces star admitted that her talents do not extend to TopGolf.

“That is a true statement,” Wilson said with a laugh. “I am in last place when it comes to TopGolf. It is not my thing.”

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(Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Vegas, though — Vegas is her thing.

This is Wilson’s fifth year in the WNBA, and all of those have been spent with the Aces. She has great affection for both her team and for the city in which she plays.

“My favorite thing about living in Vegas is there’s always something to do,” she said. “But yet if you don’t want to do something, you don’t have to do anything. You can still chill. You can go out by the pool, you could just stay in your house and go or just people watch. I think that’s the beautiful thing.

“I love living in Las Vegas.”

Eden Laase is a Staff Writer at Just Women’s Sports. Follow her on Twitter @eden_laase.

For the Chicago Sky and the Las Vegas Aces Aces, Tuesday’s Commissioner’s Cup championship was an opportunity to secure bonuses for themselves and a donation for their selected charities. But for WNBA fans, it was a chance to see the two teams that are most likely to face off in the Finals play under heightened pressure.

Las Vegas came away with a 93-83 win, and Chelsea Gray secured the MVP trophy thanks to her 19 points, five assists and five rebounds.

Here’s what to take away from the contest, and what it means for the postseason:

Slow start dooms Sky

The last time the Sky played the Aces, they pulled off the biggest comeback in WNBA history, topping Las Vegas 104-95 after being down by 25 points. It was monumental, but not a deficit the Sky wanted to repeat. Going into Tuesday’s game, Candace Parker said the Sky were focused on playing a full 40 minutes. They didn’t do that.

The Aces opened Tuesday’s game on a 13-0 run. The Sky, despite outscoring Las Vegas in the remaining three periods, couldn’t make another comeback.

“We’ve faced adversity,” Parker said. “I’m not worried about our team when we face adversity. I’m worried about us getting into adversity. We’ve had some slow starts against this team and had to claw our way out. So I think it’s more so not facing adversity; I think we’re built for that. But it’s not getting ourselves into it.”

The Sky have started slowly in all three contests against Las Vegas, a pattern they will need to remedy for the postseason. The Aces are too talented to be given an advantage, and if Chicago didn’t allow them to put up 33 first-quarter points, it could have been a different game.

Stars show out for Aces, with Gray leading the way

A’ja Wilson, Chelsea Gray and Kelsey Plum came ready to play on Tuesday, as reflected in their stat lines.

Wilson finished with 17 points, 17 rebounds and six blocks; Plum had 24 points on six 3-pointers and six assists; and Gray’s performance earned her the MVP trophy. When all three play at an elite level, it’s near impossible to stop the Aces. With Wilson dominating the paint, Gray driving and creating, and Plum knocking down 3-pointers, Las Vegas won at every spot on the court. Their well-rounded offense gave the Sky fits, and every time Chicago started a comeback, the Aces had an answer somewhere on the court.

As the point guard, Gray led the way. There’s a reason the Aces are always able to find the right spot on the court for a scoring opportunity. It’s because Gray knows where to direct the offense, how to find the right player, and what the Aces need at any given time.

“That’s the MVP tonight, but she has been leading our team the whole season,” Plum said. “I feel like, to be honest, she doesn’t get the love and credit she deserves, and I’m really, really glad that people saw that tonight.”

Defense makes difference

The Aces are known for their high-powered offense, leading the league with 90.4 points per game. But with all the hype surrounding their scoring abilities, it can be easy to forget that Las Vegas can defend.

Wilson led the way with her six blocks, making it difficult for the Sky to get in the lane. The Sky scored 83 points, just a bit under their average of 85.6 a game, but the Aces kept them uncomfortable throughout the contest, holding them to 40 percent shooting from the field and just 20 percent from the 3-point line. Chicago couldn’t get in a rhythm, and that stopped them from completing the comeback.

“It’s a mindset,” Wilson said. “It’s a heart decision. Defense doesn’t take a lot. You don’t have to be necessarily talented to play defense. You just have to want it.”

That type of intensity is something Wilson wants to see from her squad the rest of the season, a trend that would bode well for their WNBA title chances.

“I was telling KP, ‘This doesn’t have to be just a Commissioner’s Cup game,'” she said. “This could be an every-game thing for us. But it’s just a shift of the mindset.”

Vandersloot will be better

After sitting out four games for concussion protocol, Vandersloot made her return against the Aces, but she clearly wasn’t in top form. The point guard finished with eight points and four assists in 22 minutes of play.

The Sky managed to win three of four games in Vanderlsoot’s absence, but they need her on the court in the long run. She didn’t look like herself against the Aces, but expect that to change the next time the teams meet in the second-to-last regular season game on Aug. 11. Las Vegas can’t count on her underperforming due to injury again.

Consistency is key

Las Vegas and Chicago are the two top teams in the WNBA, so when they play, the winner will be the squad that does everything right. Chicago made too many mistakes on Tuesday, while the Aces remained consistent throughout the game. Playing at a high level for 40 minutes is an obvious key to victory, but these teams are talented enough to take a few minutes, even full quarters off, against other opponents and still pull off a victory.

Against the other top team in the league, that isn’t possible. The Aces proved that, with their dominant first quarter sealing the victory.

“Early on, I feel like we were very passive,” Parker said. “Credit to them — they came out and threw the first punch. But for us to get down 33-14 in the first quarter, I don’t know what it was, 14-0 or something, I don’t know, but that’s not the way we wanted to come out and play.”

Chicago outscored the Aces 69-60 the rest of the way, but Las Vegas’ steadiness won out.

Eden Laase is a Staff Writer at Just Women’s Sports. Follow her on Twitter @eden_laase.