'Simply the BEST player in the WNBA!' 🗣️ Reaction to A'ja Wilson's historic season | NBA Today

Tim legler today we get to start our show with history being made Let's Get Right to what Asia Wilson accomplished last night she came into this game against the fever just 11o shy of breaking the wnb NBA single season scoring record Tyrese Halburn has been a Mainstay at fever games the season last night was no different watching Asia Wilson go to work score the first 10 points for this that sweet spot Malik she loves that mid middle area to FL you see right there on just a catch turn face up and then here again one dribble gets to her spot that sweet shooting stroke she dominated the middle area of the floor early and with that bucket Tim she made history she now has the most points in a single season with 941 but she wasn't done and Caitlyn Clark was just getting started yeah right there puts her head down gets to the one of the few drives that she actually got to go in this one struggled a little bit with her shooting most a little bit of history there for her as well the first player with 700 points 300 assists in a single season in WNBA history here Kelsey Mitchell pulls up for a deep three trying to get the fever within range now within just four points and then Caitlyn Clark going to work here tough bucket and one tough one-on-one playing through the contact gets one to go and the free throw teammates loving it but Asia Wilson just an absolute Force too much too much you see some Defenders sometimes just shake their head what are you supposed to do with all that size and talent and shooting touch so the aces head into the fourth with a seven-point lead Asia Wilson just can get first shot anywhere yeah and the fever just continued to stay within Striking Distance but it felt like every time they were ready to make that run to take the lead maybe AJ Wilson did something again offensively getting to the spots that she loves to operate she almost lost it there but then stays with it tough finish Wilson would have 27 points 12 rebounds the aces win 8675 here's an emotional Wilson after the game and I'm trying not to get emotional but like my teammates are the ones they're the heartbeat they get me going I don't get zero points obviously without them passing me the basketball but just the way they show up to work every single day just ready to play ready to lock in things we go through in our personal lives we lock in on in each other every single day and that's that's what you see on the court so the points are great they're going to always be there I'm never going to stop shooting but the group that we have in this locker room is something that I am I'm so genuinely happy to be around so I'm blessed I'm super blessed uh to be able to do what I do with the people that I do and I I credit it all to them the passion the emotion that's just awesome and good on Asia for sharing that with us it's been a historic season for Wilson her 956 points are the new single season Benchmark for the WNBA she's just 44 point shy of being the first player to a th000 points in a season and she's doing it all while putting up career highs in scorings in rebounds blocks and steals my friend and the basketball world is tapped in look at this fellow Olympian LeBron James took to social media to congratulate Wilson on her latest feat you see her teammate there Chelsea Gray made sure to offer her some praise some Legends in the building Cheryl swoops Don Staley making sure that their feelings are known as well and speaking of Legends look who we got here Hall of Famer Rebecca Lobo is with us now Rebecca I just listed a fraction of the accomplishments that we have seen here from Asia Wilson I'm just going to put this simply are we witnessing the greatest individual season in WNBA history Asia Wilson is certainly playing as well as anyone in the history of the league perhaps better than anyone in the history of the league we'll kind of wait till the end of the season to compare her season to past grades but when you just look at the numbers she's averaging more points per game than anyone ever has her rebounding average is second in the history of the league only to the ridiculous numbers that angel Reese has been putting up Asia has simply been spectacular and Tim mentioned you know sometimes the defender can just look at her and shake their head that happens game after game sometimes I'm at home watching shaking my head wondering how anyone can slow her down certainly playing as well as probably better than anyone has in the history of this league when you're watching her play Rebecca what is it that stands out to you the most that makes you think okay we have not not seen this before she can be completely unguardable at times and you saw in some of the highlights you saw from yesterday where Aaliyah Boston was playing really good defense she can simply score Asia gets to the spots on the floor she's gotten better not only going to her strong left hand but going to her right hand as well she's added the a more consistent three-point shot she can get the ball off the defensive board and facilitate the other way she's doing it efficiently and also with the defensive atten she's getting she takes great care of the basketball in the game yesterday zero turnovers even though she was often getting double teamed she can just simply be unstoppable offensively and that's not even touching how well she's playing on the defensive end of the floor which has been very very good all season long I know you said that that full season grades we have to wait until a full season is under our belts but should we call it now do you think the MVP is is wrapped up for this year I I I honestly do I mean she is just simply the best player in the league what's a little bit intriguing is in the history of the league we've only had one unanimous MVP that was Cynthia cop Cooper and there were only 37 voters in those days now we have 60 some might look at it differently to me Asia Wilson is the MVP and I think it could be very close if not a unanimous vote look at this despite the loss Caitlyn Clark is now only five assists away from passing Alyssa Thomas for the most dimes in a single season even still Tim legler I understand that as you were watching last night you saw something that you were troubled by what exactly is that yes Malik it's how hard Caitlyn Clark has to work for everything she does offensively and I think when you have a weapon like this that is so different than any other player in the league in terms of how you have to extend defensively the amount of communication it takes to know where she is I'd like to see more stuff involving her off the ball this is going to be posts spit action 101 very simple stuff throw the ball into the post and the feeder goes and screens for another player Golden State Warriors run this better than any team in the League this is what I think they need to do more of now this is the best attempt of the three examples right here what I'm about to show you but again it's not great spacing it's not great player positioning at the start of it ideally when you run post posts spit action you'd like to have the entry feeder there and then that second player right there ball goes in and then these two players interact they try this but you see where Caitlin Clark is in a weak side of the Florida spacing and how the distances that she has to run to get herself involved in the offense it's not great but the ball does go in now after this the next part is this this has to be a screen and I put some of this on Caitlyn Clark she goes too soon and she doesn't go tight enough to the screen but ideally what you're looking at is trying to get a screen here after the ball's in the post bringing this player off give her time to get over here and what happens is with a player like Caitlyn Clark a player like Steph Curry inevitably it causes miscommunications you'll get a jump out here on the switch from this guard but you always get this second Defender staying there cuz they're so worried about the switch not being communicated you end up with two on the ball and that would leave a great opportunity right here for Kelsey Mitchell to pop back for an open three or dive down the lane or get something out of it instead they don't get to any of that they throw it to K Clark too soon she's left one of these a bunch of these on the nighte forc tough contested shots in the paint next example this one's on Caitlyn Clark give Aaliyah Boston here a legit post player time get her into the post and now let's go ahead and let's throw this entry pass but the angle should be over here where Caitlyn Clark is if you were to do that here's what it leads to it leads to this post-split action go screen for your teammate bring her off here when you run that action you now have an opportunity where two end up staying with Caitlin Clark instead she forces a drive another tough contested shot in the paint final one right here Katie luon I know she's not one of your better ball handlers but the ball needs to advance over here to the wing to get that spacing you want again you've got a post player down here throw the ball into the post and then let's go get this action where you run the split with Caitlyn Clark bringing her off to the ball and again you force things like miscommunications where you get two jumping to the ball and you get a wide openen shot for one of your best Shooters samelson stepping back instead she picks it up never goes into post all kinds of physical activity on the ball you force Caitlyn Clark into the paint big hands up another shot off the front of the rim on a drive I think there are ways to allow the game to be simpler for Caitlyn Clark and open up the game for other people because of the threat that she represents I didn't see Indiana doing a lot of that last night as a result very difficult shooting night for Caitlyn Clark the ace is obviously a formidable opponent here and they've dominated the season series so far against the fever they've won all three meetings the games they haven't been particularly close Vegas winning by an average of over 16 points per game really to your point Tim holding Caitlyn Clark in check and oh by the way these two teams they meet again on Friday night for the final meeting of the regular season so Rebecca the fever they're going to get another crack at the aces tomorrow night as they try to snap a 14 game losing streak to Vegas what do you want to see from Clark and Indiana on Friday here well there are a couple things that are interesting about this matchup first of all the aces are the only team that Indiana has yet to beat this season and the second part is this is kind of like a playoff feel they played last night they have one day off in between and they'll play them again and so I'm interested just to see what kind of uh changes and adjustments the coaches will make both on the offensive and defensive ends of the floor and this is particularly important for Indiana for one reason this is a team that lacks playoff experience they have 19 total games of playoff experience on their roster zero games of that comes from their starting lineup so this is a a thing with two weeks left in the season where they can hone in treat this like a playoff series kind of treat it like a must-win game get the rest and Recovery that they need today make the adjustments on the fly but certainly a way to prepare a team who doesn't have much playoff experience for this kind of a playoff environment and as you know Rebecca if the fever are able to get the win it'll be their 20th of the season officially ending their streak of seven straight losing years Rebecca Lobo as always thank you so much for spending some time with us we're going to be seeing a whole lot of you here on WNBA today as we March toward the playoffs [Music]