“A’ja Wilson will be Finals MVP if the Aces are to clinch this title. Yeah, listen. She has broken so many records this year, I can’t even remember them, so I have to read them,” said Ari Chambers, backing Wilson for the Finals MVP. And she’s far from the only one showing her love after Game 3 of the WNBA Finals.

Wilson set a Las Vegas Aces franchise Finals record with 34 points, surpassing Jackie Young’s 32-point mark, and delivered what will likely go down as one of the greatest buzzer-beaters in WNBA Finals history. After the Mercury erased the 17-point lead the Aces had built late in the fourth quarter, the Aces turned to Wilson on the final possession–and she delivered.

With just five seconds remaining, Las Vegas coach Becky Hammon called a timeout while Jackie Young scrambled for the final shot. But Hammon had other plans. She drew up a play to put the ball in A’ja Wilson’s hands for the decisive possession. Driving left from the elbow, Wilson rose, turned, and released a short jumper over Alyssa Thomas’ outstretched arms.

The ball hung on the rim for a heartbeat before dropping in, giving the Aces a two-point lead with just 0.1 seconds on the clock. Wilson, describing the moment after the game, said, “Those are the moments that you live for, so I’m glad I was able to show up.”

Unsurprisingly, Wilson’s clutch performance drew plenty of acclaim, with NBA stars like LeBron James and Kendrick Perkins rushing to show their admiration. “The greatest to ever do it. Yes, I’m talking about A’ja Wilson. She’s one win away from being the 🐐,” Perkins said on X.

Meanwhile, LeBron shared a tweet from Nike, which had the caption, “She is who she thinks she is,” praising A’ja for her performance, and added his own reaction: “FACTS!!!!!!!!! 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥”

For the Aces to bounce back from losing seven of their first 12 games and now be on the brink of another WNBA title all comes down to A’ja Wilson. When they had lost to the Lynx by 53 points, it almost felt like the Aces were on the brink of breaking the whole thing up, but it was A’ja who led from the front.

The team stormed into the playoffs on a 16-game winning streak, with Wilson averaging a league-high 23.4 points, 2.3 blocks per game, and dominating the leaderboards with 20- and 30-point double-doubles. She’s earned every bit of the praise coming her way.

That said, this was a record-breaking performance — one that shattered multiple milestones and further strengthened her case for Finals MVP.

A’ja Wilson continues to break records

A’ja Wilson now stands just one win away from her third WNBA championship — and if tonight was any indication, a second Finals MVP seems all but inevitable. Her 34-point, 14-rebound masterpiece wasn’t just a clutch performance; it was a record-breaking one. Here’s a look at all the milestones she shattered in Game 3.

• She recorded her first career 30-point game in the WNBA Finals
• She set a new WNBA postseason scoring record (291 points)
• She notched her ninth consecutive playoff game with at least 25 points and 10 rebounds, becoming the only player in league history to do so.
• She passed Breanna Stewart and Diana Taurasi for the most 30-plus point games in the playoffs (nine)
• She eclipsed Lisa Leslie’s record(37) for the most multi-block games in a single postseason
• It was also Wilson’s fourth 30-point game of this postseason, breaking her own record from 2023 for the most such games in a single playoff run
• She became the third player in WNBA history to record a 30-point double-double in a Finals game

It’s clear that A’ja Wilson deserves the Finals MVP this year. She’s proven time and again why she’s the best player in the world right now. This postseason will be one to remember–not just for the personal accolades she’s racking up, but for the hurdles she and her teammates overcame early in the season to get here. Critics doubted the Aces at the start of the year, yet they’ve defied the odds once again.