ARLINGTON, TX — The Dallas Wings were defeated on Wednesday night 95-81 by the Las Vegas Aces. The game featured the top two scorers in the WNBA with Arike Ogunbowale leading Dallas and A'ja Wilson leading Las Vegas. And from that storyline, the game certainly did not disappoint.

Wilson led all scorers with 36 points. She added 12 rebounds, six steals, and two assists. Ogunbowale, meanwhile, scored 31 points to go along with seven assists, four rebounds, and four steals. One has to imagine that Wilson and Ogunbowale will be in the MVP conversation once the season comes to an end.

After the game, Ogunbowale addressed Wilson's impressive performance in the Aces' victory over the Wings.

“I mean, she's a great player,” Ogunbowale said of Wilson. “Two-time MVP. You can only try to limit her, you can't really stop her. You know, that's how good of a player she is. It takes team defense, it's not just one person. Whoever is guarding her… It's not like A'ja scored on her, she scored on the whole team. We have to help whoever is guarding her. It has to be team defense against a player like that. But she did great. Yeah, she had a good game.”

Teaira McCowan felt that the Wings could have done a better job as a team defending the two-time MVP.

“We really just left each other on an island… It was just a team effort that we just slacked on tonight,” McCowan said.

Wings struggle vs. A'ja Wilson despite Arike Ogunbowale's impressive performance

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Wings' Arike Ogunbowale, Aces' A'ja Wilson both looking serious.

Defending A'ja Wilson is certainly a challenge. Of course, Las Vegas' depth makes it difficult to strictly focus on containing her. For example, Kelsey Plum scored 20 points, Jackie Young added 19, and Tiffany Hayes contributed 11 points.

Still, Wilson causes the most trouble for opposing teams.

“Defensively, just her physicality, quickness,” Wings head coach Latricia Trammell said of Wilson before the game. “Being able to defend around the perimeter. Bringing her length and size into the paint. Offensively, she can go left, she can go right… A'ja is one of the best players in the league. It's kind of going to where the league, I feel, is heading and that's the position-less basketball. And so she causes a problem a lot of times pulling out our 6'7's around the perimeter and making us defend like a guard to be honest.

“That's an area of growth for us but also it makes them pretty deadly.”

Reason for optimism

The Wings fell to 3-5 with the loss. Considering the fact that they have played five of their first eight games on the road and important players such as Satou Sabally and Natasha Howard are currently injured, the Wings have fared well. Sure, they would love to have a record of better than .500. Things could be worse considering the difficult circumstances, though.

“Staying positive,” Trammell said of how the Wings can build off their start to the 2024 season. “Doing our due diligence of rest and recovery as (McCowan) just mentioned. But continue to watch film. Get better with the young ones. It's always enhancements in teaching moments. Again, focus on the positives. We're in a situation that's a little unique to a lot of teams… We're gonna talk about these positives. Which we have to, if we don't it will be a long season until everyone comes back.”