The biggest stars in basketball are headed to Las Vegas this weekend − and not for the NBA Summer League. We’re talking about WNBA All-Star Weekend, which culminates Saturday with the All-Star Game.
Team A’ja Wilson, which features four of the Las Vegas Aces’ starters, will square off against Team Breanna Stewart for the second year in a row at Michelob ULTRA Arena. All eyes will be on captains Wilson and Stewart, but the competition is stacked with X-factors and stars that rightfully deserve your attention.
Here’s five players to watch during WNBA All-Star Weekend in Las Vegas:
FULL ROSTERS: A’ja Wilson drafts Aces teammates, Aliyah Boston
Brittney Griner, Phoenix Mercury
This time last year, Griner was being wrongfully detained in Russia. She was named an honorary starter for the 2022 WNBA All-Star Game and participants sported warm-up shirts adorned with Griner’s name and No. 42, but this year she will be there in the flesh.
Griner, a nine-time All-Star, will start for Stewart’s team. Although the Phoenix Mercury are 4-15 on the season, Griner has proved to be a bright light. She is averaging 19.5 points, 6.6 rebounds and 1.9 blocks, while shooting a career-high 60.6% from the field, in her first season back on the court following a nearly 10-month detainment.
Look for Griner to bring the flair. She slammed down her first dunk of the season against the Los Angeles Sparks on Sunday, the 25th WNBA dunk of her career. She has dunked five times in All-Star Games. Will she add another? Stewart hopes so: “She’s a dominant presence inside. We need her dunks.”
Sabrina Ionescu, New York Liberty
The two-time All-Star will have her hands full this weekend – she is set to compete in every event. The New York Liberty guard will get her weekend started by defending her 2022 title in the WNBA Skills Challenge, alongside five-time All-Star Courtney Vandersloot. She’s also participating in the WNBA 3-Point Contest on Friday. If that’s not enough, Ionescu will suit up for teammate Stewart along with Vandersloot during the All-Star Game on Saturday.
Ionescu is averaging 16.4 points, 5.8 rebounds and 5.1 assists, shooting 39.7% from the field and 44.6% from three.
Kelsey Plum, Las Vegas Aces
The Aces star was named the 2022 WNBA All-Star Game MVP in her first All-Star appearance after dropping 30 points in Chicago, tying Maya Moore’s All-Star Game points record set in 2015. Can she do it again and become the first woman to win back-to-back ASG MVP honors since Moore in 2017 and 2018? (Moore also won in 2015 but there was no game in 2016 due to the Olympics.) Plum is currently shooting lights out (she dropped 40 points Sunday against the Lynx) and will have the hometown crowd on her side. It doesn’t hurt that she’ll be playing alongside teammates Wilson, Jackie Young, Chelsea Gray and will be coached by the Aces’ Becky Hammon.
Plum, who is averaging 19.1 points, 2.6 rebounds and 4.1 assists and shooting 50% from the field this season, will also participate in the WNBA Skills Challenge alongside Gray. Plum is looking to redeem herself after getting knocked off in the semifinals of last year’s skills challenge by Ionescu.
Jackie Young, Las Vegas Aces
Allie Quigley has reigned over the WNBA 3-point Contest since 2017, winning four out of the last five shootouts. But Quigley won’t be in the field for Friday’s contest, meaning someone new will hoist the 3-point trophy. Young, the Aces guard, has a good chance of winning it.
Young leads the league shooting 48% from the 3-point line and has made 50 out of 103 3-point attempts this season. She will face off against Ionescu, the Connecticut Sun’s DiJonai Carrington, the Indiana Fever’s Kelsey Mitchell, the Dallas Wings’ Arike Ogunbowale and Seattle Storm’s Sami Whitcomb.
The WNBA’s 2022 Most Improved Player is averaging a career-high 19 points, 3.9 rebounds and 3.9 assists this season. No wonder Wilson selected her Aces teammate third overall to start on her All-Star team.
Rhyne Howard, Atlanta Dream
The Atlanta Dream guard has a chip on her shoulder. The 2022 WNBA Rookie of the Year narrowly missed an All-Star nod, but was selected to replace an injured Elena Delle Donne on Team Wilson in the All-Star Game, marking her second selection in as many years in the league. And she’s deserving of the honor.
Atlanta is riding a six-game win streak and Howard is heating up. Over the past five games, Howard has averaged 24.4 points, including a 43-point performance against the Los Angeles Sparks earlier this month. She joins teammates Allisha Gray and Cheyenne Parker on Team Wilson and just might show everyone why she should’ve been an All-Star to begin with.
