PHOENIX — The Las Vegas Aces defeated the Phoenix Mercury 97-86 in a dominant performance Friday night to win their third WNBA championship in four years and cement their status as the league’s reigning dynasty.

The Aces completed a four-game sweep of the Mercury in the first best-of-seven WNBA Finals in league history.

Aces superstar and four-time league MVP A’ja Wilson led the way in Game 4, finishing with 31 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 blocks en route to earning Finals MVP honors. She averaged 28.5 points, 11.8 rebounds and 2 blocks in the Finals.

“You have your Mount Rushmore, she’s alone on Everest,” Aces coach Becky Hammon said. “There’s no one around.”

Wilson brought a pink tambourine into the postgame news conference, shaking it to add humor and emphasis to some of her answers.

“This is the symbol of just the joyfulness we have right now,” she said. “And I’m grateful.”

Hammon, who played in the WNBA from 1999 to 2014, said the Aces are already one of the league’s greatest franchises.

“I think the evolving of the game … these players are bigger, stronger, faster and more skilled,” Hammon said. “[Past] dynasties laid the groundwork and showed how winning should be done and really gave a lot to the WNBA insofar as history.

“The skill set and level these guys 1760179632 are at, to me, it’s not comparable … it’s a natural evolvement. That’s the sign of any great league; it doesn’t stay the same.”

The Aces’ journey also wasn’t the same as when they won back-to-back titles in 2022 and 2023 as the No. 1 seed after having the league’s best record. This season, they were .500 on Aug. 2 following a 53-point loss.

But through a subsequent 16-game winning streak to end the regular season, the Aces secured the No. 2 playoff seed and weathered challenging first-round and semifinals series that went the distance before putting together a dominant Finals run that solidified their super-elite status.

“I love being their coach, I love being their friend. Pushing them sometimes to their disliking a little bit, but I’m invested in their greatness,” said Hammon, who took over as Aces coach in 2022 and is 10-2 in the WNBA Finals. “This one hits differently because it was different. There was probably a lot more adversity than any of us anticipated. We’re all human, and we’re humans that wanted to get it right, and get it right together.”

For the first 2½ months of the season, the Aces were not jelling. They lost their season opener by 14 points at New York, then hovered around .500 through June and July and had a losing record as late as July 25.

“To be right here right now [compared] to where we were … there was a lot of doubt [but not] in that locker room,” Aces point guard Chelsea Gray said. “We had confidence in each other. I’m just really proud of how we just stayed the course and trusted the process the entire time.”

While the Aces were trying to find themselves, the Minnesota Lynx were atop the league standings for most of the season and the presumed favorite to win the title after losing in the Finals to the Liberty a year ago. But New York fell in the first round of the playoffs, and Minnesota was eliminated in the semifinals — both falling to Phoenix.

The Mercury entered the Finals with a lot of momentum, but the Aces took it away. Las Vegas pulled out a close victory in Game 1, won comfortably in Game 2 and took Game 3 on Wilson’s game-winning jumper with 0.3 seconds left.

The Aces never trailed in Game 4, leading by 16 points at halftime and 15 entering the final quarter, after Phoenix coach Nate Tibbetts was ejected in the third on a double technical for arguing with officials.

With assistant coach and former WNBA player Kristi Toliver guiding them, the Mercury rallied in the fourth quarter and got as close as six points. But the Aces held on and celebrated their third title on the road, after winning at Connecticut in 2022 and at New York in 2023.

Gray and Jackie Young each scored 18 points and combined for 12 assists, while Jewell Loyd and Dana Evans combined for 22 points off the bench.

“I was kind of written off in exile,” said Loyd, who won two titles with the Seattle Storm before landing with the Aces via trade. “But I ended up in the promised land.”

Only the Lynx, Storm and Houston Comets (who disbanded after the 2008 season) have four WNBA titles. With Wilson and Young, both former No. 1 picks, still in their prime at ages 29 and 28, respectively, the Aces should be contenders to join that exclusive group. That is, if those players stay put, which is a question each WNBA team will have to answer this offseason.

Almost every player not on a rookie contract will be a free agent for the 2026 season. Before free agency can begin, the league and players’ union will need to agree on a new collective bargaining agreement and have expansion drafts for Portland and Toronto, two new franchises in 2026.

“The last time I spoke about things like that, I got fined, so I think it’s better if I don’t say anything,” Aces owner Mark Davis said of the ongoing CBA negotiations. “I think they’ll work it out somehow. I hope. I haven’t been consulted. … I don’t think that there’s two sides to this if you look at it as togetherness and trying to make the future better. I think that’s what we need to do, but we’ll see if that works.”

The off-the-court issues for the league prompted fans to boo commissioner Cathy Engelbert as she awarded the championship trophy to the Aces and the Finals MVP trophy to Wilson.

Asked about the booing after the game, Gray said, “We have great players. You need to treat them like that.”

The WNBA’s labor issues and free agency movement will play out over the next several months. During that time, the Aces can reflect on everything they went through and accomplished this season.

“Good things happen to the right people,” Wilson said. “And that’s what you see in [our] locker room today.”