Even a defending champion and “super” team like the Las Vegas Aces must execute the little things correctly.

“Some of the attention to detail was missing,” Las Vegas coach Becky Hammon said after an 80-78 setback at Dallas ended her team’s nine-game winning streak. “We were hesitant and tentative and that’s really not us offensively.”

The Aces (16-2) will try to return to their winning ways on Sunday night when they visit the Minnesota Lynx for a matchup with one of the WNBA’s hottest teams.

Las Vegas committed 18 turnovers and received no points off its bench in the loss the Wings. The Aces also lost the rebounding battle 36-25, allowing four shots on Dallas’ final possession that ended in a foul that resulted in Natasha Howard’s winning free throws with 0.4 seconds left.

Wasted in the rare defeat was a 21-point, six-assist performance by Kelsey Plum, who returned to the lineup after missing Wednesday night’s 89-82 win over Dallas with a non-COVID illness.

“It doesn’t really matter how you play if you don’t win, to be honest,” Plum said.

Meanwhile, Minnesota (9-9) squared its record at .500 on Thursday with a 75-64 home win over Phoenix. It was the fifth straight win for the Lynx and their ninth in 12 games since an 0-6 start. They held the Mercury to 37.7 percent shooting to make up for some inconsistency on the offensive end.

Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve was glad to see her team find another way to win a game aside from simply outscoring an opponent.

“We know we didn’t bring our best,” she said. “We were happy to win the game … let’s try to bounce back and be physically more ready to play that game on Sunday because Vegas is coming off their loss.”

Napheesa Collier, who will play in next weekend’s All-Star Game, led the Lynx with 12 points, 12 rebounds and five assists. She’s averaging 22.0 points and 8.1 rebounds per game this season.

The Aces cruised to a pair of convincing victories over the Lynx this season. Las Vegas won 94-73 on May 28 and 93-62 on June 17.

–Field Level Media