NaLyssa Smith Is Out and the Aces Lose Their Finisher

The Las Vegas Aces ruled NaLyssa Smith out for the season on Aug. 27 after a non-contact left leg injury.

She went down at the 3:15 mark of the third quarter in an 88-78 win at Toronto on Aug. 23. The defending champions now head toward the playoffs without their most efficient scorer.

The Leg Gave Way on a Fast Break

Smith was on the break when Jackie Young threw her a pass in Vancouver. She jumped to catch it, and her left leg buckled on the landing. She slapped the floor, could not put weight on the leg, and had to be helped off.

The Aces called it a non-contact left leg injury and gave no further diagnosis. They did not say whether she needs surgery. Coach Becky Hammon did not take questions on her status at practice on Aug. 27, a day Smith missed after the road trip.

The club’s statement was spare. Las Vegas Aces forward NaLyssa Smith suffered a non-contact, left leg injury at the 3:15 mark of the third quarter of the Aug. 23 game against the Toronto Tempo and will be sidelined for the remainder of the 2026 season.

She had 8 points and 8 rebounds in 19 minutes that night, going 4-for-4 from the floor. A’ja Wilson spoke after the win, before the season-ending ruling landed.

Lyss is a soldier. God has his hands on her, and we’re going to continue to be beside her through this whole process.

A’ja Wilson, Aces forward, after the Aug. 23 win at Toronto

Stephanie Talbot, who starts next to that frontcourt, said the group would have to take on more in the short term. The clip of the landing left little doubt the night it happened. Teammates stayed with her until the timeout, and the next medical update was the one that closed her year.

THE WEEK THE FRONTCOURT BROKE

1. Aug. 23, 2026: Suffers the non-contact left leg injury at 3:15 of the third quarter in an 88-78 win at the Tempo.
2. Aug. 27, 2026: The Aces announce she is out for the rest of the season and the playoffs.
3. Aug. 28, 2026: Las Vegas beats Toronto 93-73 at Michelob ULTRA Arena in the first game without her.
4. Aug. 29, 2026: The club signs 6-foot-7 center Kalani Brown on a minimum deal via a season-ending injury exemption.
5. Aug. 31 to Sept. 16, 2026: The WNBA pauses for the FIBA Women’s World Cup in Berlin.

Play resumes Sept. 17. Smith, 26, will not be on the floor for any of it.

Gray and Young Lose Their Finisher

Smith started all 38 games she played and averaged 11.7 points and 6.4 rebounds in 24.3 minutes. She led the WNBA at 63.8 percent from the field, 183 makes on 287 tries, a career high that sat far above her 49.6 percent career mark.

Almost none of that volume was creation. She shot 65.2 percent on two-pointers (182 of 279) and 77.3 percent at the rim (58 of 75). Tracking logged 72.1 percent of her makes as assisted, 132 of 183. The offense ran through Wilson, Young, and Chelsea Gray. Smith was the finish.

SMITH’S 2026 SHOT DIET

Her Hoop Stats’ assist map is the part playoff scouting will miss. Young found her 43 times, all at the rim or in the short paint. Wilson added 17. The fattest share was 45 finishes from Chelsea Gray, every one a two-pointer.

When help slid to Wilson, Gray and Young had a 6-foot-4 cutter who converted those extra passes. Take that outlet away and the next help defender can stay home. Smith’s 2.2 offensive rebounds a night also propped up a club that does not crash the glass as a habit. Those misses now bounce to someone else, or they bounce out.

Who Replaces Smith in the Aces Frontcourt?

Brianna Turner started at center in the first game without Smith, with Wilson at the four and Talbot at the three. Turner played 18 minutes, 35 seconds, scored 4 points on 2-for-6 shooting, and grabbed 5 rebounds in a 93-73 home win over the same Tempo club.

Wilson had 27 points and 8 rebounds in 30 minutes. Young scored 23 with 8 assists and no turnovers. Gray added 11. Cheyenne Parker-Tyus, back from a concussion that cost her 10 games, gave 9 points and 7 rebounds in 12 minutes off the bench. The building was a sellout of 10,523.

Toronto entered that night 11-28 and turned the ball over 17 times. The Aces led by 17 at half and never needed a closing-time test. Hammon has used Gray or Jewell Loyd at the four in small groups, and that look will return when the paint gets crowded in April’s sense of the word, meaning October.

THE BODIES NOW IN SMITH’S MINUTES

• Brianna Turner: Started the first game without Smith and holds the defensive minutes, with little scoring in that role.
• Cheyenne Parker-Tyus: Gave 9 points and 7 rebounds in 12 minutes on Aug. 28 after missing 10 games with a concussion.
• Kalani Brown: Signed Aug. 29 at 6-foot-7, a veteran center who has not played in the WNBA this season.
• Small closers: Gray or Loyd can slide to the four, which leaves Wilson as the only true big on the floor.

The Aces already held a season-ending injury exemption, which lets them add a free agent on a minimum contract. They had been in the mix for DeWanna Bonner and lost her to the Atlanta Dream. The window to add a player waived by another WNBA club and still have her eligible for the playoffs had closed, so Las Vegas had to look at free agents already outside a roster.

Las Vegas Bought This Role With a First-Round Pick

Dallas sent Smith to Las Vegas on June 30, 2025, for the Aces’ 2027 first-round pick. She started the next game. The Aces went 21-5 the rest of that regular season and won a third title in four years, with Smith starting all 12 playoff games at 7.1 points and 5.0 rebounds.

The 6-foot-4 forward out of Baylor was the No. 2 pick in the 2022 draft and spent three seasons with Indiana before the 2025 stop in Dallas. In 18 games with the Wings she averaged 6.7 points on 42.1 percent shooting. The Aces asked her to cut, rebound, and finish. She did. On April 12, 2026, Las Vegas locked that in with a one-year, $450,000 extension.

She has started 176 of 186 career games and averages 11.4 points and 7.0 rebounds for her career. This season’s 19.9 player efficiency rating and 4.4 win shares were the best of that run. The No. 2 pick never became a first option. In Las Vegas she became the fourth option who made the first three harder to guard.

That is the hole. Wilson still averages 26 points and 2 blocks and is in the mix for a fifth MVP. Young and Gray still run the ball. The extra pass that used to become two points at the rim now has to become a tougher look, a kick-out, or a reset.

Kalani Brown Returns on a Minimum Deal

The Aces announced Brown on Aug. 29. She is 6-foot-7, the No. 7 pick in 2019, and has played 139 WNBA games. Career line: 5.7 points and 3.5 rebounds in 13 minutes, 57.5 percent from the floor. Phoenix bought her out in April. She spent the gap in China with Shanxi and was in the building for the Aug. 28 game before the signing posted.

President and general manager Nikki Fargas put the pitch on size and the glass, not on replacing Smith’s cuts.

The Las Vegas Aces are thrilled to welcome Kalani to the family. She brings an extremely diverse defensive skillset, has a great paint presence and is a strong rebounder.

Nikki Fargas, Aces president and general manager, in the Aug. 29 signing release

Brown and Smith were Baylor teammates on the 2019 NCAA title team, Brown a senior and Smith a freshman. That is a clean locker-room fit. It is not the same job. Smith lived on short-roll finishes from Gray and Young. Brown’s WNBA work has been drop-in center minutes, not 24 minutes as a starting four next to Wilson.

Hammon gets the World Cup pause to install her. Wilson, Young, and Gray were all ticketed for Berlin when Smith went down. Only Wilson later pulled out. Brown can practice with Turner, Parker-Tyus, and the rest of the extras. The first live look in an Aces scheme still waits until Sept. 17.

Four Games Left and a Packed Paint

Las Vegas is third in the WNBA at 27-13, four games behind Minnesota (31-9) and two behind Golden State (29-11), with a three-game winning streak. Atlanta and Indiana sit at 26-14. The eight-team field is set: Lynx, Valkyries, Aces, Dream, Fever, Liberty, Mystics, Wings.

THE TOP OF THE BOARD

The last four games, starting Sept. 17, run through Seattle, Los Angeles, and Phoenix. Those are winnable. Third place, and the home court that comes with a top-four seed, is still the likely landing spot. The Tempo win without Smith did not answer how this group scores when a playoff defense loads the paint and dares the extras to beat them.

Minnesota and Golden State are the clubs that gain the most from a thinner Aces frontcourt. The Lynx already took the season series edge in the games that mattered in August. The Valkyries have spent two years building a defense that lives with a packed paint. Smith’s 63.8 percent was the tax on that scheme. The tax is gone.

Wilson Sits Out Berlin to Protect Her Back

Team USA said on Aug. 31 that Wilson will not play in the World Cup for health reasons, with Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen taking the roster spots that had belonged to Wilson and Kelsey Plum. Wilson has been listed with back trouble and has missed 3 games this season. Gray and Young are still going to Berlin, where the tournament runs Sept. 4 through Sept. 13.

That split is the rest of this story. The player who has to cover Smith’s scoring is the one staying home. The two guards who fed Smith those 88 combined finishes are the ones flying. Wilson will have more than two weeks to get her back right before Sept. 17. She will also return to a starting five that no longer has a 63.8 percent closer on the extra pass.

The Aces can still win in September against teams that are tanking. They can still take a series if Wilson is the best player on the floor, which she usually is. What they cannot do is call the same action they called from June 30, 2025, until 3:15 of the third quarter on Aug. 23 and expect the same two points at the rim.