The Morning After: Dana Evans wasn't on track in the first half to be the hero of Aces' Game 1 WNBA Finals victory

LAS VEGAS — This year’s WNBA Finals matchup between the Las Vegas Aces and Phoenix Mercury already had storylines galore:

• The Aces looking continue their run of destiny, following up a 16-game winning streak to close the regular season with back-to-back, to-the-wire series wins over the Seattle Storm and Indiana Fever respectively.

• The Mercury pulling off the rare Year-1-of-the-build Finals run, knocking off last year’s Finals participants (the New York Liberty and Minnesota Lynx) in consecutive rounds to do it.

• A’ja Wilson’s hunt for the Triple Crown (T’riple Crown, if you will) of winning MVP, Defensive Player of the Year and a championship in the same season.

• Alyssa Thomas, a perennial MVP and DPOY candidate, in search of her first ring and having to knock off Wilson, who won her first title against Thomas and the Connecticut Sun in 2022, to do so.

• Thomas and Mercury star forward Satou Sabally, and the Aces’ Jewell Loyd and Dana Evans earning vindication on their new teams.

• The South Dakota connection between head coaches Becky Hammon and Nate Tibbetts, which, hey, how cool is that?

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If Friday’s Game 1 was any indication, we’re going to be incredibly fed as basketball fans, because that was an awesome, drama-filled, topsy-turvy game. The Aces were able to secure an 89-86 victory, but it took 12 lead changes and plenty of schematic tweaks along the way.

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In the inaugural edition of The Morning After, we’ll be looking at a major theme that stood out from Game 1 before emptying the notebook with smaller yet important observations. This will be the format for each game moving forward.

Let’s dig in, shall we?

The Big Picture: Dana Evans at the ‘center’ of attention

Evans earns top billing behind a historic performance off the bench. She racked up 21 points, notably knocking down five of her six 3-point attempts, and four steals. Per WNBA PR, Evans became the first player in Finals history to make five threes and accumulate four steals in a game. She was huge in the fourth quarter, playing all but 13 seconds of the final frame (Kiah Stokes will get her just due soon) while drilling three triples and racking up a key steal as well.

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This wasn’t always on pace to be a hero’s story, though. The first half, while close in score, was incredibly rickety for the Aces and Evans specifically. She was, figuratively and literally, the center of attention. On one hand, her blend of timely drives and jumpers helped keep the Aces afloat while their stars looked to find their way. On the other hand, the Mercury were relentless in attacking Evans, particularly with inverted ball screens.

Normally, Evans and other guards are tasked with navigating on-ball screens and working hard to stay attached to their matchups while a big offers support behind them. The Mercury, as they have all season with Thomas at the helm, flip that dynamic by having their guards screen for Thomas. That meant Wilson, who normally toggles between dropping back in coverage or switching screens altogether, had to navigate screens while Evans had to execute center-like coverages.

Per GeniusIQ tracking data, teams, on average, generated 0.88 points per possession on trips featuring a pick-and-roll during the regular season. During the playoffs (excluding Friday’s Game 1), that mark dropped slightly to 0.86 points per possession. In the first half of Game 1, Thomas-led pick-and-rolls that involved Evans as the screener defender generated an absurd 2 points per possession — effectively a guaranteed bucket.

Between the spacing setup — the Mercury often filled the corners and made sure a wing was “clear” so Thomas had more room to operate — and tremendous screens set by rookie guard Monique Akoa Makani, the Aces struggled to contain the action. After the game, Wilson noted how difficult it is to prepare for such a drastic shift in role and matchup, but that she’s willing to be uncomfortable to pull out wins.

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“Coming off having to guard Nneka [Ogwumike], then having to guard Aliyah [Boston], now having guard AT, those are three different players that you have to guard very differently, so it did put me in a funky position,” Wilson told Yahoo Sports.

“I don’t go over screens, I don’t go under screens. That’s not … I’m a big, I don’t do that,” Wilson said with a laugh. “But in this [series], I might have to. I’m going to buckle in and see how I can be comfortable in my uncomfortable situation, but my guards always have my back, so I’m not worried when it comes to that.”

Head coach Becky Hammon also acknowledged how difficult the Thomas-led pick-and-rolls were to deal with, leading to some subtle tweaks to their coverage in the second half. Notably, Evans played closer to the level of the screen in the second half, cutting off some of the space Thomas used to rev up for drives in the first half.

Here’s a snapshot from the first half:

And here’s one from the 4th quarter:

Taking away that initial space felt important. Evans took things a step further by “jumping” Thomas’ handle on a few occasions, even forcing a jump-ball as the Aces were rallying early in the fourth quarter. Throughout the night, you could feel an extra jolt of energy and confidence from Evans whenever she was able to get a stop; it especially stood out in the second half.

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“Honestly, I really get going with my defense,” Evans said, answering a question from Kareem Copeland of The Washington Post. “When I’m able to get steals, push the ball and see something easy go in — get a layup — then I know, ‘All right, I feel good.’ I have to let my defense dictate my offense; I feel like it can’t be the other way around.”

How the Aces choose to deal with the Mercury putting Evans in action, and if the Mercury will change their approach at all to their mismatch-hunting, looms large heading into Sunday’s Game 2. I wouldn’t be surprised if they tap into more off-ball screens featuring Evans to generate switches before flowing into post touches.

Other takeaways

• While Evans changing her depth as the screener defender in the second half made an impact, another big piece to the Aces’ second half turnaround was their decision to play zone. They went to the gambit 11 times in the second half per GeniusIQ tracking, with the Mercury generating a paltry 0.67 points per possession on those trips. Hammon mentioned her frustration with the team’s base defense as the primary motivator to the shift, but also noted the team did a better job of rotating to the Mercury’s 3-point threats, walling off the middle of the floor with more consistency and protecting Evans from being involved in as many inverted pick-and-rolls as she was in the first half. Tibbetts said his team did a lot of “standing around” against the zone, and that its presence contributed to a quieter second half from star wing Kahleah Copper (19 points in the first half, two points in the second half).

• I thought the Mercury did a really good job of poking at the Aces’ switching and size mismatches for most of the night, particularly in the first half. Sabally had it going early before succumbing to foul trouble, and there were moments where Thomas and DeWanna Bonner were able to draw double teams against mismatches. It’s important the Mercury don’t get too focused on mismatch hunting and risk losing their flow in the process – something I asked Tibbetts about after the game – but there’s a lot of good they can draw from heading into Game 2.

• The Aces wouldn’t have been in position to make a second-half surge if not for timely shotmaking from Loyd. She scored a postseason-high 18 points, with 13 of those coming in the first half. I especially enjoyed the flare screens the Aces mixed in to counter some of the aggressive roaming the Mercury were doing.

• The inaugural Most Valuable Thirteen or Fourteen Seconds Award, affectionately known as the MVTFS, goes to Stokes. She was absolutely nails on the Aces’ game-clinching defensive stand. Earlier in the game, the Mercury sprinkled in timely slips to the basket to counter the automatic switching the Aces were doing off the ball. Contrast that to the final possession of the game, when Stokes comes in cold and blows up a slip from Thomas with a switch, then switches onto Copper and contains without fouling. That’s what “stay ready so you don’t have to get ready” looks like, y’all.

• I’ll just quietly note the Mercury won Natasha Mack’s near-16 minutes by eight points. Her screening, rebounding, defending and apparent lob-finishing are all important. I’d like to see more of her.