WNBA FINALS: LAS VEGAS VS. PHOENIX

October 5, 2025

A'ja Wilson

Jackie Young

Las Vegas Aces

Game 2: Postgame

Aces - 91, Mercury - 78

Q. Jackie, following up to that question, the turnaround from Game 1 to Game 2, take us a little bit through your day yesterday just to get those legs back, and then the mindset that you had coming out, especially in that third quarter?

JACKIE YOUNG: Yeah, woke up early yesterday, got some treatment in. Honestly, that was it. Spent a lot of time getting treatment. Obviously we knew it was just a fatigue thing. We'll call it 44, leave it at that.

My shots were short. I was getting everything I wanted Game 1, but they were darts, you guys saw it. I was trying to change it, but just didn't have it.

Luckily that's why we have a lot of great players on this team. At any point in time, it can be somebody else's night.

Q. I wanted to go to that third quarter. I asked Becky a minute ago if you guys had identified anything at halftime, and she said, no, you kind of just took it on your own. What did you see or what kind of went through your mind to say, okay, this is my time that I can kind of get cooking?

JACKIE YOUNG: Just being aggressive, I think is the biggest thing. Whenever we get stops on defense, we're able to play in transition at the pace we want to play at. Just being aggressive and just saw a couple go through.

My teammates were getting me the ball, and I was just trying to make the right read, be aggressive and not turn the ball over.

Q. Becky talked about just you all going through battles and having that chemistry. Obviously you and Jackie and Chelsea have chemistry, but primarily with you and Chelsea, especially that second quarter, it seemed like you guys were effortless in that second quarter. It looked kind of like a Kobe and Shaq-ish type vibe you guys have. Can you talk about having the chemistry and having that translate into what you guys were accomplishing in the second quarter?

A'JA WILSON: Yeah, I feel like we have all just been equity with each other off the court to where on the court we can get just to our spots. We get an understanding of what makes people great, how do we get the best out of them? When it comes to Chelsea and I particularly, I don't practice catching her passes, it's just a mental thing, and there is the connection we have out of the gate.

She makes my life easy, and I hope I make her life easier just because we flow off each other, we read off each other. Kind of like Jackie was saying, we don't get anything of that if we don't play out of our defense.

That's what kind of got us going was we were getting stops. We weren't taking the ball out of the rim every single time. We take what the defense gives us. I get mad when Chelsea doesn't shoot because she's trying to pass, and she gets mad when I don't shoot and I'm trying to pass. That's just a connection that we've built over the years and I'm grateful for it.

Q. You guys had more turnovers than Phoenix, 13-11. Part of that they play at a high pace, like to get into transition, balls are zipping. On the other side, you're getting to that too. Typically you're one away with two wins in the Finals, but you need two, so the margin for error will be a big deal in Game 3. How do you manage playing with that pace and tempo but being safe with the ball?

A'JA WILSON: The biggest thing for us is just to be patient. We were kind of amped considering how Game 1 went. They were knocking down shots left and right, so I think we were on high alert when it came to that, and it kind of sped us up.

I think, if we're just patient on both sides of the basketball, particularly the defensive side, and just kind of let our defense do the work. Trust one another, know that there's layers to that. I think we can kind of build on that.

When it comes to the turnovers, I think we could also just be patience on offense. I think we sometimes see things, and we want to make the home run pass, but sometimes it has to be the good to great, and sometimes it might be the hockey assist and little things like that.

So just being patient upon both sides of the basketball can definitely help us.

Q. This question is for both of you. I'm sure having high-volume scoring performances individually is fun on any given night, but is it more fun to be able to do it together combining for 60 points tonight between the two of you? Do you just look at each other on the court and do that little chuckle right there?

A'JA WILSON: Oh, man, it's a joy. Take the numbers away, I'm just so proud of Jackie honestly. She's a perfectionist, and when you see someone that works so hard every single day, and then you get to see the hard work paying off, it's a beautiful thing to witness. I'm so grateful just to be her teammate, to come into work with her every single day. I'm a pain in the ass sometimes when she's not doing her job because I know that it's there. I know that Jackie Young is there, so I try every single day to bring it out of her.

To be able to witness it on court -- you did some nasty stuff today. It's crazy. But to be able to witness it and live it, it's been tons of fun.

Q. Jackie, do you have something to say about that?

JACKIE YOUNG: Yeah, it's honestly a blessing getting to play with the best player in the world every day. I mean, she's one of my best friends. She's the hardest worker. She puts in a lot of work behind the scenes that you guys don't know about. Just for her to be able to show up every night being double, triple-teamed, obviously the focus is on her and she's still able to put up these numbers every night.

I think just the way that she pushes everybody. She's the standard, and on this team everybody wants to be the standard, so you put in that work because you don't want to be the one that's like -- (whispering to A'ja).

A'JA WILSON: (Laughing) Yeah.

JACKIE YOUNG: We just stay locked in and put in the work. This team loves to be in the gym. So, yeah, it's just fun being able to play alongside her.

Q. Building off of that, A'ja, had you scored another basket, you guys would have been the first pair of teammates in WNBA Finals to score 30-plus. What is your reaction to coming up two points short?

A'JA WILSON: Dang, I've got to do better. I dropped the ball on that one. Sorry, Jack.

No, we have a joy coming into work every single day and doing what we do, and it just shows up like this. The hard work that we put in to be here is something that we don't take for granted. But dang, I messed up on that one, Jack. Sorry, I owe you a basket.

No, we know we've got to come back out Game 3, and it's going to be harder. The emotions are going to be higher, and we've just got to show up and still be our true selves and just kind of do us.

Q. A'ja, you were just talking about how hard Jackie works behind the scenes. I'm just curious what specifically has evolved the most from her during this 2025 season, especially when you think about when she was a rookie in 2019 playing point guard for this team?

A'JA WILSON: I would say the biggest is her court vision and also her 3-point shooting. I remember just young Jackie, when Bill Laimbeer told her she's going to be the point guard, she's like, I've never played point a day in my life, and she's like, okay, let's try it as a professional. And we still trust her. I still trusted her.

You could tell she was a little hesitant. She was still a little hesitant. Now here you are, what, year 7? Jesus. Year 7, and she's facilitating. She's throwing dimes, doing everything, shooting transition 3s and becoming, I say, one of the best two-way guards in this league. I think that is just -- when you're talking about the evolution of a great player and a pro, it's Jackie Young.

Did you win Rookie of the Year?

JACKIE YOUNG: No, not even close.

A'JA WILSON: People were raising their eyebrows when we drafted her at 1, and she didn't win Rookie of the Year.

Everyone's story is so different, but Jackie, her evolution has been so great, and that ceiling is so high. It's really no ceiling because she's shattering it. Every young guard that wants to come in the league should take a page out of Jackie's book of working hard because it's going to pay off.

Q. A'ja, this question is for you. You kind of mentioned you've been pouring into Jackie. I wanted to know if you'd be willing to share some of the positive affirmations you said to her over the course of the season.

A'JA WILSON: Without cussing? I think the biggest one would just have to be -- and I tell this to all my teammates, but particularly Jackie, just remember who you are. Like remember who you are. Don't let any basket, don't let anything shake you from who you are and how far you've come and how hard you worked to get to this point, and don't let someone just rob it. Don't let anyone dim your light.

That's something that I share, like I said, with everyone, but particularly Jackie because I can see it in Jackie's eyes sometimes. No, devil, you ain't going to get my girl. So I just pat her on the chest sometimes.

Q. Becky's talked a lot about wanting you guys to handle success really well. When we were talking to her yesterday, she said she thought you guys were doing okay in that regard in the playoffs. What conversations, if any, did you have going into today to make sure you could handle the 1-0 success well and also how do you expect to try and approach that now going to Phoenix up 2-0?

A'JA WILSON: The biggest thing we said to ourselves is the 1-0, the lead-up in the series, it's not that. We just have to play the game that's in front of us. We don't look at the series as just the numbers, we look at it as just like this is another opportunity for us to play basketball the right way, and we need to do it.

Going into Phoenix, that's the same mindset that we're going to have.

Q. You mentioned that this Game 3 is going to be more difficult and more emotional. I know that you haven't had a chance to like watch the game and scout or anything, but are there some things that stand out that you think the Mercury will adjust and you are already kind of bracing for?

A'JA WILSON: It's just the situation of going into their place. This is going to be tough. Phoenix is a hard place to play at, but we've got to make sure that we can just stay solid in what we do in our system. You're just playing on just human emotions as well. We can't get too high with our highs, can't get too low with our lows, and we've just got to play defense. We've got to buckle in and just get ready to weather storms.

I think throughout this season, between how we started, between the streak, and now here we are, we've been through a lot. That's going to pay off, I'm sure, because we've weathered so many storms. We can't stop here. We can't be satisfied.