How to watch Aces at Mercury: Western Conference clash puts A'ja Wilson vs. sizzling Phoenix
Two of the WNBA's best bigs go at it on Sunday, with Satou Sabally and the white-hot Phoenix Mercury hosting A'ja Wilson and her Las Vegas Aces. Phoenix has been one of the surprise competitors of this nascent 2025 season, while Vegas looks uncharacteristically labored so far.
How to watch Las Vegas Aces at Phoenix Mercury
Venue: PHX Arena — Phoenix
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Time: 6 p.m. ET, Sunday
TV: NBA TV (national), Arizona's Family 3TV and Vegas 34 (regional)
Streaming: Fubo (try for free)
Watching in person? Get tickets on StubHub.
It's not all bad for the Aces. Wilson recently surpassed 5,000 total points, and did so in fewer games than anyone in league history.
Elsewhere, Jackie Young has bumped up to the best scoring average in her seven pro seasons, and Chelsea Gray is still efficient behind the arc on career-high volume (37.3 percent, 5.0 attempts per contest). Becky Hammon's group has the fewest fouls in the W and enjoys a positive free-throw differential. And … that's about it.
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Across the past six seasons, the dynastic Aces have two championships, a third Finals appearance and three semifinal finishes. They've been a surefire staple for this current era of women's hoops. Yet these Aces arrive in the desert with a paltry 7-8 record, ranking ninth out of 13 teams in points for and points against. They're also ninth in net rating, spoiling six consecutive years of top-four marks there. Kiah Stokes has been a non-factor as the fifth starter, and the entire bench rotation is shooting below 40 percent.
Six-time All-Star and 2023 scoring champ Jewell Loyd was supposed to slide right in as Kelsey Plum's replacement. She's maintained her assist-to-turnover ratio and is still on point from long distance (41.7 percent in her first 15 Vegas games), but her 2-point struggles are almost hard to process (35.3 percent, worst among all regular 2025 starters).
Phoenix, meanwhile, has been an all-out challenge for the rest of the sport. The Mercury have won six in a row behind brisk pacing, shoot-at-will tempo and disciplined defense. They've wholly dominated turnover differentials, leading all teams in takeaways, and four of their players crack the top 20 in defensive rating.
The offense funnels into Sabally. The German-American big is up to a career-high 19.6 points per game while playing out-of-her-mind defense down low. The engine runs through Alyssa Thomas, the league's leading initiator at 9.5 assists per game. It's not often that an established 12-year veteran with multiple All-WNBA nods improves her output, but Thomas has career-best numbers in assists and field goal percentage.
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Sabally had only played with Dallas before joining Phoenix in the offseason. Thomas did 11 years in Connecticut before her free agency move. Much props are in order for second-year head coach Nate Tibbetts and GM Nick U'Ren. With Kahleah Copper reintegrated from her knee injury, the Mercury are harboring real title aspirations in their first staging without Diana Taurasi or Brittney Griner.
Best player to wear both jerseys: Danielle Robinson. She was a three-time All-Star with the San Antonio Silver Stars, the previous iteration of the Aces franchise, before a respectable 2017 season with Phoenix. Robinson then got to don the Vegas threads in 2020, when she was a crucial bench guard for the team's Finals run.
Updated WNBA odds
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This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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