CHICAGO — The Las Vegas Aces are in town to face the Chicago Sky, meaning there are two headlines heading into Thursday’s matchup. The WNBA’s two best rebounders, Angel Reese and A’Ja Wilson will square off, and former WNBA teammates Teresa Weatherspoon and Becky Hammon compete for the first time as coaches against one another.

Battle on the Boards

Reese comes into Thursday as the W’s second leading rebounder behind Wilson, trailing her by half a rebound per game (11.1-11.6).

Wilson, the 2020 and 2022 WNBA MVP, is well on her way to repeating as the league’s best player. The South Carolina alum also leads the league in points per game (27.8), while ranking second in blocks per game (2.4) and sixth in steals per game (1.9).

“I think it’s going to be a team effort. Obviously, she’s [an] MVP for a reason,” Reese said after practice Wednesday. “She does what she does effortlessly. She puts in the work for it so, it’s going to take a team effort, it’s not going to be one person to contain her.”

Reese has averaged 13.2 points and 11.1 rebounds per game so far as a rookie, but has come on even stronger of late. She has averaged 16.4 points, 14.2 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game, while shooting 51.7% from the field, over her last five contests, which includes a 25-point, 16-rebound performance Sunday in a win over Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever.

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“I think this is probably our hardest matchup, for sure,” Reese said. “I think everybody’s going to have to make sure they’re paying attention to their personnel and making sure they understand their matchup individually in order for it to be a team effort and get a team win.”

T-Spoon and Becky Hammon back together again

The year is 1999.

Heading into the third year of Teresa Weatherspoon’s playing career with the New York Liberty, the team signed an undrafted rookie point guard out of Colorado State to backup their reigning two-time WNBA Defensive Player of the Year.

That point guard was Becky Hammon.

Weatherspoon and Hammon played five seasons together from 1999-03, with Hammon succeeding Weatherspoon as the team’s all-star starting point guard by the end of the 2003 WNBA season.

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Fast forward to Thursday, with the two serving as head coaches in the WNBA and facing off against one another for the first time in head coaching roles, they held a joint press conference with the message “you can compete and love one another.”

Tip-off between the Chicago Sky and Las Vegas Aces is set for 6 p.m. CT, with the game being aired on Prime Video.

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