The 2025 WNBA schedule has provided a plethora of thrilling endings, but this final stretch to wrap a bow on the regular season has the potential to be one of the closest races in recent memory. With less than eight games left for each of the top six seeds, these teams also own the top six hardest remaining schedules. If you like telenovelas, this season has been nothing short of one. The MVP race, as of late, has only intensified the flames.
Whether it gets publicly acknowledged by the masses or not, the media always picks a player whom it believes has the strongest chance to win the award, then it rides that wagon until the wheels fall off. In this case, the chosen player was Napheesa Collier. In her absence with a right ankle injury, the main stage was open for the taking, which several players did.
Statistics and narratives write the assignment, and the machine behind it is not always adept at change. As of late, a few players have taken advantage. One of them is Las Vegas Aces superstar A’ja Wilson. At the beginning of August, the Aces were in an unfamiliar spot as the eighth seed. In less than a month, Las Vegas has roared back to life and has nearly run the table with a franchise-record 12-game win streak. During this stretch, Wilson is playing near-perfect baseball, averaging 26.8 points, 12.4 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 1.5 steals, and 2 blocks. She is also shooting 50.7 on twos and a blistering 45 percent from deep on just under two attempts per game (1.7).
A’ja Wilson with back to back triples.
— Steve Jones Jr (@stevejones20.bsky.social) August 28, 2025 at 2:49 AM
Alyssa Thomas has been the picture-perfect example of efficiency in every way possible. From the surgical precision in her court vision as she seeks out her teammates to create for them and herself, to her ability to be a true 1-5 defender, there is not a single avenue that she takes a shortcut on when on the court. It shows in the *six* triple-doubles Thomas has raked in this month. It is vital to remember that no other player in league history has more than four. She broke her own record of six set back in 2023. Thomas is on pace to break Caitlin Clark’s record for assists in a single season and has already broken her record for points scored off assists in the first half against the Chicago Sky on Thursday night.
7 triple doubles for Alyssa Thomas this year. The most in a season in WNBA history!
She passed… herself! Her previous record was 6 in a season.
— Daniel Thompson (@dr-thompson.bsky.social) August 27, 2025 at 6:01 AM
Allisha Gray’s emergence as one of the best players in the WNBA this season has been a joy to witness unfold. The three-time All-Star is averaging career-highs in points, rebounds, and assists. Her effectiveness on both sides of the ball as a two-way player has been at the core of her abilities for a Dream team that has required every play she can make. Gray is also third in the league in made three-pointers. In the clutch, she has been one of the most dominant players since the season kicked off. When her team places a call for her services, Gray has responded with force.
The basketball played over the last month has been superb and historic in every right. As media members, fans, and overall lovers of the game, we need to appreciate the special, once-in-a-lifetime moments that find us more often. The keyboards and calculators will always be there. The professionals we tune in for, whether that be for your career or favorite pastime, will not.
With only a handful of games left in the regular season, Thursday night’s matchup in Atlanta, where the Dream hosted the Las Vegas Aces, had seeding implications for both sides. In a virtual tie for the second seed, a win for either squad would guarantee a one-game cushion. To say this was one of the most important games of the season for Atlanta would be a severe understatement.
After trading for Allisha Gray in 2023, the Dream have been on the cusp of reaching the next level – in this case, the second round of the playoffs – since. With the hiring of longtime Florida Gulf Coast women’s basketball coach Karl Smesko and additions of All-Star centers Brionna Jones and Brittney Griner, as well as others like rookie guard Te-Hina Paopao, Atlanta has been one of the most intriguing teams all year. After struggling to contain offenses in the fourth quarter in the first half of the season, the Dream have allowed the fewest points per game and the third-fewest (18.8) in the final frame since the All-Star break.
In addition, opponents score the fewest second-half points (38.4) in the WNBA. That was not the case with the red-hot Aces in town, who were winners of 11 straight entering the matchup.
After taking a 42-40 lead into halftime, both teams went back and forth for most of the third quarter until Las Vegas caught fire just inside of four minutes, holding Atlanta scoreless the rest of the way en route to a commanding 13-0 run to end the period. MVP candidate A’ja Wilson had eight points in the quarter and netted them all in less than 90 seconds off two wide-open three-pointers and a midrange jumper. The Aces scored 13 of their 21 third-quarter points on that run, outscoring the Dream 21-6 in the frame. It did not help matters that Dream All-Star Rhyne Howard notched a single point on 0-for-4 shooting in the third quarter.
Atlanta fought to get back in the game and trailed Las Vegas by three with 1:07 left in the fourth quarter. They traded jumpers down the stretch, but the Aces never relinquished the lead. After a timely three-pointer from Dream All-Star Rhyne Howard shrank the deficit to four, it was still a two-possession game, which meant her team had to foul for a chance to get the ball back with enough time on the clock for a quick shot. The only issue was that the fouled Aces player was Wilson, who is eighth in the league in free-throw percentage (84.9) among players who take at least four shots at the line per game.
While she was shooting free throws, fans in attendance erupted into boisterous “MVP” chants at Wilson, who will undoubtedly be a top choice for the award. These cheers did come as a thrill to Howard, who aired her grievances with fans.
Rhyne Howard said it’s hard to compete when the home fans aren’t on your side.
“You wanna come see Gamecocks, we have Gamecocks on our roster. “— No Cap Space WBB (@nocapspacewbb.com) August 28, 2025 at 4:44 AM
“It’s tough to try and compete and, you know, and have a great game,” Howard said to reporters. “Obviously, there are runs, but this is a challenge. We rely on our fans, and when they pick and choose who they want to cheer for and come in and make it feel like an away game for us and a home game for the other team, it’s easy to go on a run like that. Especially with playoffs coming up.”
The three-time All-Star noted how fans were rooting for Wilson because of her college basketball career at the University of South Carolina, which is a three-hour straight shot on I-20 from Columbia. The Dream boasts two former Gamecocks of their own in Paopao and All-Star Allisha Gray, who is one of the main names in the MVP conversation.
“You want to see Gamecocks? We have Gamecocks on our roster. The last game we had ‘MVP’ chants for one of our players [Gray]. Don’t get here and switch up because of one player. And yes, we do make mistakes, but it’s easy to lose momentum when you have other people cheering against you.”
It is not hard to understand where Howard is coming from. Atlanta is one of the few legitimate championship contenders, and this was an important game to further strengthen their case as such before a grueling playoff stretch. Hearing your home crowd cheer as often as it did for the opposing team is not a feeling that athletes would prefer, but it is simply a part of sports, especially in a sports city like Atlanta. Due to the dense population of celebrities and transplants that reside in Atlanta, most home games are like the BET Awards, as ESPN reporter Holly Rowe would say.
The Aces are also the only team that the Dream failed to beat this season. It also did not help matters that Gateway Arena, the home arena for the Dream, has fewer than 4,000 seats. The cheers for Wilson were likely amplified due to the construction of the sole bowl.
In the midst of all this, which appears to have gone unnoticed, is that the player being cheered for is A’ja Wilson, a two-time champion, two-time Defensive Player of the Year, and three-time league Most Valuable Player. Wilson is arguably the best player in the world. These things should be expected. The former Gamecock has received MVP chants on the road in Chicago against the Sky and in D.C. versus the Mystics.
Since Wilson entered the league in 2018, away games in Atlanta have long been a home game of sorts for the future Hall of Famer. With such a close distance between the epicenter of women’s college basketball for the last decade-plus and the only WNBA team in the southeastern United States, the connection was evident. Over the last several seasons, Wilson’s personal initiative, the A’ja Wilson Foundation, has bused fans from Columbia to Atlanta to see her play.
The Atlanta Dream has long been the home base for Gamecock fans, whether it was realized or not. In 2019, former national champion Alaina Coates signed a deal to join the team, and the support was felt even then. Though fans weren’t in attendance during the Wubble, the Dream had former Gamecock Kaela Davis on the roster. When the team drafted former South Carolina forward Laeticia Amihere in 2023, fans made the three-hour trek west to Atlanta to see her as often as they could. Dream minority owner and former player Renee Montgomery has likened the two teams to cousins and joked lightly about the Aces being “family.“
Since 2023, there has always been at least one Gamecock on the roster. I say this to say that the Dream and the South Carolina basketball program have a longstanding relationship, which predates Howard’s time in the WNBA. If Atlanta were not the only WNBA team within a radius of 500 miles to the closest neighbor in either direction, there is a good chance that Gamecock fans would be dispersed more evenly across the region. However, that is not the case as expansion bids without clear links to an NBA franchise were not prioritized in the last round of teams added. The Berman family, which owns the Charlotte Hornets, submitted a bid to revive the Sting, but was passed over until the next round.
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Born and raised in Chicago, Christan Braswell is a women’s sports journalist with a focus on the WNBA and women’s college basketball. He’s an avid fan of elevator screens and stuffed crust pizza. Outside of sports, he’s an avid cook and lover of the great outdoors.
Dear readers, thank you for allowing me the chance to share something different with you all last week. Vulnerability is scary, but I felt like someone had to say the […]
