The Connecticut Sun have surged to a 6-1 start to the 2023 WNBA season, but there's still one team ahead of them in the standings. That happens to be the team that defeated them in the 2022 WNBA Finals -- and the team they'll play Tuesday night.
The Sun will host the 6-0 Las Vegas Aces at Mohegan Sun Arena on Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Boston in a game they've likely had circled on their calendars since last September. While the Aces and their fellow "superteam," the New York Liberty, entered the 2023 season as overwhelming title favorites, Connecticut is making its own case as a championship contender out of the gate, and can bolster that case Tuesday by knocking off Vegas.
That will be no easy task, of course. The Aces boast the WNBA's best offense (93.7 points per game) and its best defense (75.7 points per game), with a point differential of 18.0 that's nearly 15 full points more than their next-closest competitor.
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Simply put, Vegas is loaded, with Jackie Young (21.1 ppg), reigning WNBA MVP A'ja Wilson (20.7 ppg), Kelsey Plum (14.3 ppg) and 2022 Finals MVP Chelsea Gray (13.7 ppg, 7.0 apg) shouldering the scoring load and seven-time All-Star Candace Parker rounding out the starting five.
Don't sleep on the Sun, though. DeWanna Bonner (16.0 ppg) and Brionna Jones (14.9 ppg) are off to strong starts offensively, while Alyssa Thomas has been stuffing the stat sheet with 14.4 points, 11.6 rebounds and 6.9 assists per game. Connecticut also boasts the WNBA's third-best defense and will need to step up on that end to limit the Vegas' high-powered attack.
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If the Sun are able to hand the Aces their first loss, it will send a message to Vegas and the rest of the league that they're a team to be reckoned with in 2023 -- with designs on getting back to the Finals and producing a different result than 2022.
You can watch Sun vs. Aces live on NBC Sports Boston and NECN at 7 p.m. ET, or click here to stream the game on NBCSportsBoston.com.
