PORTLAND, Ore. -- Chelsea Gray matched a WNBA record with nine 3-pointers Thursday night, propelling the Las Vegas Aces to a 105-89 win over the Portland Fire.
Gray went 9-of-13 from deep, hitting her record-tying 3 with 2:53 left in the game. She shares the mark with four other players, most recently Atlanta Dream star Rhyne Howard, who did it twice last season.
"I had a couple of games where I was, 'OK, I'm hitting them in practice, but not here.' But you know, this is just about trusting the work," Gray said.
Gray finished with 29 points on 10-of-15 shooting. A'ja Wilson led the Aces with 32 points.
"Our trust is something we have been growing forever," Wilson said. "Our trust, our communication, just the kind of person Chels is. She's a great character person. ... There is a real connection that we have, and you see that on the court."
Jackie Young added 10 assists and eight rebounds, and NaLyssa Smith and Stephanie Talbot each had 10 rebounds.
"It's nice to have Jackie where you can get Chelsea off the ball, because she is a really good shooter," Aces coach Becky Hammon said. "A lot of the times, the ball is in her hands and she's getting us into offenses where she's passing. So at times it's nice to get the ball out of her hands and let her do some of the easier work."
Hammon continued: "But I mean, her numbers are always [up there]. She flirts with 50-40-90 every year."
In the Aces' first matchup with the Fire, who are in their inaugural season, Las Vegas admitted having early issues with Portland's pesky defense, which picks up its opponent in a full-court press nearly every possession.
"We knew that they were going to do that, but until you actually see it, it feels a little different," Gray said. "Who do we want to take out the ball? How do we want to run? How do we want to get into our sets? Because we don't want to be playing half-court offense with only 10 seconds left on the shot clock. Once we were able to do that, it got better for us."
Gray said that getting more comfortable on the defensive end was also crucial for the Aces to take control of the game. Midway through the second quarter, the Fire had a 32-4 advantage in paint scoring.
"I don't think I've ever seen our defense that bad," Hammon said. "We switched it up a little bit ... and we were able to get some stops and run. ... I like Portland's team. I think they're feisty, but my team is feisty, too."