The Las Vegas Aces will pounce on any meat you leave back for them this season. And the Phoenix Mercury served them well in Game 1 of the 2025 Finals. After being in control of most of the game, it felt as if the Mercury welcomed the Aces to snatch the victory. Satou Sabally got an unnecessary technical foul for slamming the ball too hard. DeWanna Bonner forgot how to defend, and to top it all off, Thomas missed two clutch free throws that could have won them the game! And now, with so many blunders in a game, it is more than natural to haunt you throughout the series. 

After Game 1, A’ja Wilson and Jackie Young dominated Game 2. Wilson took the first half on her own while Young owned the third quarter, and then the Mercury’s fate was sealed. Thomas finished with a modest scoreline of 10 points, 5 assists, and 6 rebounds. To Angel McCoughtry, Thomas was carrying that Game 1 baggage. McCoughtry said on the ‘Good Follow’ podcast with RosGold Onwude, “It’s an emotional weight that’s on them.”

The star continued saying, “My message is to AT, Alyssa Thomas, you are letting Game 1 affect Game 2 and then affect Game 3. You are the emotional weight of the team. They follow you, right? Those free throws got to you. You gotta let it go.” Beyond the box score, Alyssa Thomas looked uncomfortable throughout that game. She got into foul trouble early (3 fouls at halftime) while guarding A’ja Wilson and was unhappy with the refereeing.

When there’s an MVP show, you can’t afford to sidetrack while guarding her. Thomas has committed 8 turnovers through the first two games and is arguably underperforming in another aspect. She is at her best while inducing stops and disrupting the game, but she only has 3 steals through the first two games (0 in Game 1). Still, the number looks good, but against the Aces, who are prone to sloppiness, it can surely get better than this. But this is less of a skill issue and more of an unwanted burden.

If the point guard was at her mental best, this number would have been higher. “It happens,” Thomas had said regarding the missed free throws. While she was seeing Wilson and Co. dominate in Game 2, a “what could have been” scenario regarding Game 1 could have crossed her mind. 

However, to get results, McCoughtry is pleading with Thomas to leave the past behind. “If you continue this emotional weight on you, you’re not going to beat the Aces. Let it go.” She said. It will be difficult because her ‘weight’ is not limited to just the two missed free throws. She has been at the touching distance of the title before, losing to Aces twice in her playoff journey, and almost being the Finals MVP in 2019. 

Thomas has been here in this space before. She pushed the Aces to five in the 2020 semis after a dislocated shoulder playing for the Connecticut Sun. Next, she knocked out the Sky in 2022, stole games off the Aces in the 2022 Finals, and the superteam Liberty in 2023. After those heartbreaks, she has the second-most playoff games without a ring. Now she has to scale a mountain to achieve her dream and will need to use her past as fuel rather than a weight, and her team believes she will come back. 

Alyssa Thomas’ hunger for one thing can shut critics, feels Nate Tibbetts

If not for a tame Game 2 from Alyssa Thomas, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Alyssa Thomas is arguably the toughest player in the league. For a majority of her career, Thomas has been playing with labrum tears on both of her shoulders, opting not to go the surgery route. A pair of torn labrums, right in 2015, left in 2017, rewired Alyssa Thomas’s shot, limiting her arc and range so severely that she’s 2-for-26 from deep and a career 65.1% at the line.

Despite her limitations, Mercury head coach Nate Tibbetts believes Thomas is the most win-hungry player he has ever seen. “She’s the ultimate competitor,” Tibbetts said. “I don’t know if I’ve ever been around anyone quite like her in my whole (life), and I grew up in the gym. My dad was a high school coach, right? I’ve been around a lot of players, and I’ve never seen anyone that wants to win as bad as she does. I’m just absolutely blown away by her toughness and grit.”

Even the toughest can go through mental blocks. Shaquille O’Neal is a classic example. The big man struggled through free throws his entire career, but it was an in-game issue that he faced.“When I’m in my house shooting, I look like you (JJ Redick)…Everybody would be mad that when I [got] in the game, it wouldn’t convert…It was a humbling experience from the man upstairs,” O’Neal said. While that was limited to free throws, everybody from Kobe Bryant to LeBron James has experienced the same across their careers. But almost every time, there has been light at the end of the tunnel, and Thomas will fight to get there.