Photo credit: Shawn McCullough (Sports Radio Service)

By Shawn McCullough

Head coach Bill Laimbeer wasn’t very happy with the effort from his starters.

The Aces committed 21 turnovers in an 80-74 loss to the Connecticut Sun at the Mandalay Bay Events Center.

“We were lazy and we were not mentally strong at all,” said head coach Bill Laimbeer. “As a basketball team, you have to acquire it, you have to learn it, you have to earn it. We don’t have it right now. Which is not disturbing, it’s just fact. This is what it is right now.”

Laimbeer stressed that he was getting more energy from his unit off the bench over his starting unit.

“Our starters have no energy,” said Laimbeer. “They go out there and they just go through the motions.  I can’t find one person in the starting unit to go out and give me that energy, so I got to make a change somehow.”

“It’s very upsetting to see it and hear your coach say that,” said A’ja Wilson. “We just got to really back in as a team and get mentally tough, mentally together and just keep pushing through.”

Wilson led the team with 19 points and nine rebounds, while center Liz Cambage came off the bench and added 14.

“It comes from everyone, we all got to bring the energy to lift each other up,” said Cambage. “Even when you are tired, you need to just keep the energy going and that’s something that we need to work on.”

With the loss, Las Vegas fell to 1-2 on the season.

The Aces will next travel to Atlanta on Thursday to face the Dream before traveling to New York to face the Liberty.

Las Vegas Aces – http://aces.wnba.com

Game Notes:

• The Aces shot 43.8% from the field.
• The 21 turnovers where the most since July 1, 2018 at Los Angeles.
• Only 2,747 fans were in attendance, compared to 7,249 at the season opener.

Game Starters:

F – 22 A’ja Wilson
F – 21 Kayla McBride
C – 8 Carolyn Swords
G – 0 Jackie Young
G – 10 Kelsey Plum