(Photo credit: Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images)

In a rematch of last season's WNBA Finals, the reigning champion Las Vegas Aces play host to the Phoenix Mercury in a matinee Saturday to open the season for both teams.

Las Vegas heads into the 2026 campaign fresh off its third WNBA championship in four seasons led by A'ja Wilson, who is coming off her fourth Most Valuable Player campaign.

Wilson surpassed Lisa Leslie, Sheryl Swoopes and Lauren Jackson for the most MVPs in league history with last season's selection. In 2026, Wilson can become the first player ever to win the award in three consecutive seasons.

In a league flush with new, young stars, Wilson enters her ninth campaign aiming to remain the WNBA's standard-bearer, as she told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

'I like proving people wrong,' Wilson said. 'I like to let people just burn because me and my team are doing great, or they never could have imagined it could have been me in this situation or my team in this situation.'

Wilson averaged 23.4 points, 10.2 rebounds and matched her career-best with 3.1 assists in 2025. She claimed WNBA Finals MVP at the culmination of a postseason run when she averaged 26.8 points -- her most in seven career postseason appearances -- 10 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 2.5 blocks and 2.1 steals.

Wilson closed out the Aces' four-game Finals sweep of Phoenix with consecutive games of 34 and 31 points, ending the surprise playoff run of the Mercury, who will lean into its veteran roster this season.

Phoenix reached the Finals as the No. 4 seed in the playoffs, taking down the No.1-seed Minnesota Lynx in a 3-1 semifinal series. Kahleah Copper, a 10-year veteran, averaged 17.8 points through the playoffs.

DeWanna Bonner, who is entering her 18th year in the league, posted a pair of double-doubles in the Finals, and 12-year veteran Alyssa Thomas delivered three double-doubles in the Finals and a triple-double in the title-clinching game.

While the returning trio helped guide Phoenix's run to the Finals, Thomas said at the Mercury's media day on Wednesday that the playoffs provided the team's younger players with invaluable lessons.

'We had a lot of people on our team who were ... first time going through playoffs,' Thomas said. 'I don't think you can prepare people enough for how hard playoffs is.'

Among its young contributors, Phoenix welcomes back Monique Akoa Makani, a season-long starter as a rookie last year.

Makani is part of a Mercury backcourt tasked Saturday with slowing Las Vegas' perimeter group of Jackie Young, Chelsea Gray, Jewell Loyd and offseason addition Chennedy Carter.

--Field Level Media