Phoenix Mercury’s Huge 48-Point Loss to Las Vegas Aces: Explained Simply

Published: Jul 12, 2026, 03:33 AM ET

What Happened? (The Big Picture)

The Phoenix Mercury and the Las Vegas Aces are two teams in the WNBA (that’s a league where women play professional basketball in the USA). On Saturday night, they played a game.

Here are the key facts:

• The final score was 106–58 in favor of the Aces. That means Las Vegas scored 106 points, and Phoenix scored only 58.
• The difference is 48 points. That’s a giant gap! In basketball, when one team wins by that much, we call it a blowout (a super one-sided game).
• This 48‑point loss is tied for the third biggest loss ever in WNBA history.
• The worst ever was a 59‑point loss by the Indiana Fever to the Minnesota Lynx in 2017. In that old game, Minnesota scored 37 points in a row without Indiana scoring any (called a 37‑0 run). In our Saturday game, the Aces never had a streak longer than 9 points, but they still won big. They led by as many as 54 points in the final quarter.

Important: The Mercury’s coach, Nate Tibbetts, was very angry and disappointed. He said: “The reality is, we can’t have any more of these… That was completely unacceptable.” He felt bad for the players, staff, team, and fans.

Why the Coach Was Upset (ELI5 Style)

Imagine you and your friends are on a team, and you barely try while the other team runs circles around you. That’s how Coach Tibbetts felt.

• He said the team must “make a move” (start playing better) if they want to succeed.
• After the game he said: “That was ugly, disappointing, all of the above… We’re going to find out a lot about us on Monday” – meaning they will see if the team can bounce back.
• He added: “No one’s going to feel sorry for us. We got to compete, and we did not do that at a high enough level, not even close today.”
  (Compete means try hard and fight for the win.)

The Players and Their Numbers (Like a Scoreboard)

Basketball has different ways to help your team:

• Points = baskets you make (some are worth 2, some far away are worth 3 – called 3‑pointers).
• Rebounds = grabbing the ball after someone misses a shot.
• Assists = passing to a teammate who then scores.
• Turnovers = mistakes where you lose the ball to the other team.
• Double‑double = getting 10 or more in two of those categories (like points and rebounds). It’s a good thing!

Las Vegas Aces (the winners, now 17 wins and 6 losses)

• A’ja Wilson (a 4‑time MVP – Most Valuable Player, meaning she’s often the best): 21 points, 15 rebounds in only 25 minutes. She already had a double‑double by halftime.
• Justine Pissott: 19 points in her first ever WNBA game (like her first day of school!).
• Chelsea Gray: 15 points and 11 assists (great at passing).
• Cheyenne Parker‑Tyus: 15 points.
• NaLyssa Smith: 14 points.
• The whole team made 30 assists (they shared the ball really well).

Phoenix Mercury (the losers, now 8 wins and 16 losses)

• Monique Akoa Makani: team‑high 13 points.
• Lexi Held: 11 points.
• DeWanna Bonner: only 2 points, but she reached a huge career milestone – she became the third player in league history to score more than 8,000 total points over her career.
• Fun twist: In the first game of this season, the Mercury beat the Aces by 30 points! This time it flipped completely.

How the Game Unfolded (Step by Step)

A basketball game is split into 4 parts called quarters (like four slices of time). Here’s what happened:

1. First Quarter: The Aces scored the first 9 points. By the end of the quarter, they led 29–9. Wilson had 9 points, the Aces made 5 three‑pointers, and the Mercury only made 3 out of 17 shots and gave away the ball 5 times (turnovers).
2. Second Quarter: The Aces kept dominating, leading by as many as 37 points. At halftime, the score was 57–22 for Las Vegas.
3. Third Quarter: The Aces’ biggest lead grew to 45 points. Going into the last quarter, they were ahead 79–36.
4. Fourth Quarter: The Aces led by as many as 54 points before finishing at 106–58.

Important: Even though the Aces won by a ton, they never had a super long scoring streak (longest was 9 points). The all‑time worst loss had a 37‑point streak where the other team scored zero.

A Little History Lesson

• Last year, the Aces themselves got crushed: they lost 111–58 to Minnesota (that’s the second‑biggest margin ever).
• But after that bad night, they won the next 16 games to finish the regular season and then won the championship (their third title in four years).
• So a big loss doesn’t always mean a team is doomed!

Summary

Let’s recap the whole story:

• The Phoenix Mercury lost to the Las Vegas Aces by 48 points (106–58).
• It’s one of the largest losses in WNBA history (tied for third).
• Coach Nate Tibbetts was very disappointed and wants his team to compete harder.
• Stars like A’ja Wilson played great; Mercury’s DeWanna Bonner hit a special career milestone despite scoring little.
• The Aces have bounced back from big losses before, so we’ll see what Monday brings for Phoenix.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

1. What does “blowout” mean in basketball?
A blowout is when one team wins by a very large number of points, like 48. It means the game was never close.

2. Who is A’ja Wilson?
She plays for the Las Vegas Aces and has been named the league’s Most Valuable Player (best player) four times. In this game, she scored 21 points and grabbed 15 rebounds.

3. What is a “double‑double”?
It’s when a player gets 10 or more in two different stats, such as points and rebounds. Wilson had 21 points and 15 rebounds, so she achieved it before halftime.

4. Why was the Mercury’s earlier win mentioned?
Because in the first game of the season, Phoenix beat Las Vegas by 30 points. That shows how surprising this huge reversal was.

5. What happens after such a big loss?
The coach said they’ll learn a lot on Monday about the team’s response. History shows the Aces, after a similar bad loss last year, went on to win the championship—so a bad night isn’t the end of the world.