The Aces needed Dana Evans in Game 1 of the WNBA Finals, and she answered the call. She scored 21 points off the bench — matching A'ja Wilson's points total — to help lead the Aces to an 89-86 win over the Mercury on Friday night.
LAS VEGAS — During the regular season, Dana Evans was a critical part of the Las Vegas Aces’ bench. She came in and offered relief to Chelsea Gray and Jackie Young, but she didn't have to be the star who stepped up to make big shots. On a roster with four-time MVP A’ja Wilson and multiple All-Stars/Olympians in Young and Gray, she didn’t need to be the one hitting those shots.
But they needed her in Game 1 of the WNBA Finals, and she answered the call. She scored 21 points off the bench — matching Wilson's points total — to help lead the Aces to an 89-86 win over the Mercury on Friday night. That total included five 3-pointers, and she added four steals on the defensive side — a combination no player has accomplished in WNBA Finals history.
“I want to come in and be a spark," Evan said after the game. "I want to do whatever my team needs for me, whether that's getting after it defensively, getting us organized, getting buckets like, whatever that looks like. But this is what I've worked all my life for to be in this position.”
Evans' journey to reach this point hasn’t been linear. After an impressive career at Louisville that saw her win back-to-back ACC Player of the Year honors, Evans was drafted by the Dallas Wings in the second round in 2021. She was quickly traded to the Chicago Sky, winning a championship in her first season but playing minimal minutes. The Sky’s fortunes changed quickly after that championship, as several star players and the head coach left the team. Evans played in Chicago for three more seasons in a solid bench role, and was traded to the Aces for draft picks before the 2025 season.
As Evans prepared for her 25th career playoff game, Aces head coach Becky Hammon told her that she needed the 5-foot-6 guard to stay aggressive on the court, and that’s exactly what she did in the Game 1 win.
“I've said multiple times that Dana's our battery. She makes us play at a different pace,” Wilson said. “Told her we go as she goes, and that's a quick pace, but we're gonna always try to follow her, because we know she's very hard to stop in this league, very hard to keep in front of. And so when she's able to get downhill and get good looks. It plays in our favor.”
Evans wasn’t the only bench player to make a difference. Former All-Star Jewell Loyd moved to the Aces’ bench in late July when the team was struggling, and it’s one of the reasons they managed to come back from a rough start to the season. Loyd added 18 points and 4 rebounds on Friday night.
Evans and Loyd's big performances took some of the pressure off Wilson and Young — through the five-game series with Indiana, Wilson played at least 33 minutes in each game, whlie Young played at least 32.
“We have weapons. We want to use them all, because we're harder to guard that way,” Hammon said. “It was just a really great time for our bench to come up and have a big game, because I think you saw a little bit of fatigue, maybe from Jackie and A’ja, who kind of carried us through that last Game 5. The rest is really important at this point for both of them, and that's what makes us a difficult team. We do have that potential for somebody else to [come up] and get 20."
With the win at home, Vegas takes a 1-0 series lead, but the 2025 Finals are a best-of-seven series for the first time in WNBA history, and the game was tight in the final minutes.
Phoenix had a strong start to the game, with Kahleah Copper scoring 19 in the first half, but the Aces switched up their defense to put more pressure on her. She finished with a team-high 21. Satou Sabally chipped in 19, but got in some foul trouble. Alyssa Thomas added 15 points, 10 rebounds and 9 assists.
In Phoenix’s two previous playoff series — wins over New York and Minnesota — they lost the first game. They've been in this position before.
“This is a long series," Copper said. "To take away from those other first ones was, the mindset was back to the drawing board. We have the utmost confidence in our locker room and in our coaches to make the adjustment, so now it's the same thing. It’s still just a little frustrating.”
Game 2 is on Sunday at 3 p.m. ET in Las Vegas.
Category: General Sports
