Aces coach Becky Hammon has been waiting all season for her two-time WNBA champion team to start playing defense. The wait is over because no team in the league has played better than Las Vegas during the past six games.

Las Vegas is giving up just 72.1 points during its past half dozen games. The Aces have held their last eight opponents below 80 points.

Seattle has been playing strong defense, too, holding its last six foes to an average of 76.1 points per game.

Defensive intensity should be on full display in this game as the Aces hold a one-game lead on the Storm for the No. 4 seed in the playoffs and the first-round home-court advantage that comes with that seeding.

The Storm are going to be missing two of their best players, Jewell Loyd (knee) and Ezi Magbegor (concussion). Loyd led the WNBA in scoring last year. She leads Seattle in scoring this season at 19.7 points a game. Magbegor averages 11.7 points and is Seattle's most accurate shooter with a 51.2 field goal percentage.

A'ja Wilson became the WNBA's first 1,000-point season scorer, accomplishing the feat in Las Vegas' last game. Hammon said she might cut Wilson's minutes to get her rested for the postseason now that Wilson broke the single-season scoring record.