Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images
The Aces hoped to become the first WNBA team to three-peat in 20 years. Now, they’re on the brink of elimination.
BROOKLYN — There’s a reason why no professional basketball team has completed a three-peat since the Los Angeles Lakers did it in the early 2000s. After Tuesday night’s Game 2 loss against the New York Liberty, Las Vegas Aces head coach Becky Hammon shed light on what makes keeping a championship-level attention to detail for three consecutive seasons so difficult, acknowledging how human nature comes into effect.
“Quite frankly, we haven’t had the edge,” Hammon said. “We found it the last month — we gained a lot of ground.”
A lack of an edge is something that Hammon has spoken about a number of occasions this season. It seemingly played a role in why the Aces began the year with a 6-6 record, and and why they dropped Game 1 — a loss that Hammon deemed effort-related. And, while the effort was better in Game 2, Hammon acknowledged that the performance still left a lot to be desired.
“The amount of layups we gave up was obscene,” Hammon said after the 88-84 loss.
Though the Aces finished the regular season with an undeniably better focus than they began it, they still weren’t the same team that dominated the WNBA en route to back-to-back championships in 2022 and 2023.
Now, they find themselves in an 0-2 hole in the semi-finals, a deficit that no WNBA team has ever overcome — though it’s not one the team believes is insurmountable.
“I love being in the history books,” said Chelsea Gray, the Aces’ 2022 Finals MVP. “Might as well kind of start there.”
Still, the clutch-time Barclay’s Center loss was a full-circle moment for Las Vegas
Last year, the Aces secured the WNBA championship on the road, defeating the Liberty in four games and clinching the series with a one-point victory at Barclay’s Center. That came despite the absences of Chelsea Gray and Kiah Stokes — both rotation players who were lost to injury — and ended with Courtney Vandersloot airballing a potential game-winning jumper in the waning seconds.
The heartbreaking loss has famously served as fuel for New York all season, and Hammon and the Aces have continuously acknowledged that Liberty came back better this season — both improving an individual level, and adding rookie standout Leonie Fiebich, who has been a seamless fit in the starting lineup.
“New York is a lot better than they were last year, plain and simple,” Kelsey Plum said ahead of the semi-finals match-up. “If you go down the line, like pound for pound, individually — all of them are better.”
After the Game 2 loss, Hammon acknowledged that while other teams improved, her team dealt with distractions in the wake of their prolonged success.
“The field was different from the jump, and this is why three-peating is hard,” Hammon said. “Let’s be real, the whole league has been pissed off for the last eight months, and my players are in commercials, and this, and that, and being freaking celebrities — and you get distracted. That’s why it’s hard, because human nature is distracting.”
Hammon also drew a parallel between the 2024 Liberty-Aces semi-finals rematch and the 2014 Finals rematch between the San Antonio Spurs and Miami Heat. Hammon, who served as an assistant coach under Greg Popovich, watched the Spurs fumble a championship when they failed to secure a defensive rebound at the conclusion of Game 6 of the NBA Finals in 2013, allowing Heat sharpshooter Ray Allen to sink a corner three when the series would have otherwise ended.
The Heat ultimately secured the title in the subsequent Game 7, one of the more shocking comeback wins in modern professional basketball. But, the Spurs came back to decisively win it all the following year.
“They lose an absolute heartbreaker, in Miami, off a basic thing, [an] offensive rebound, kick out three,” Hammon said. “We [the Spurs] should have walked away with the title that year. The next year, they came back. They came back with so much drive, so much discipline, so much focus, that there was no way somebody beat them in 2014.”
Hammon likened the Liberty’s 2023 loss to the Spurs’— and also compared the two teams’ responses to the heartbreak.
“I still think we [the Aces] were the better team, but we were dealt a really freaking tough hand last year in the Finals, losing Chelsea [Gray] and Kia, so I’m sure they feel like something was stolen a little bit.”
This season, the Liberty are 5-0 against the Aces, including the two playoff wins.
“At the end of day, in two years, we’ve won here one time,” Hammon said. “Game 4. Other than that, they’ve kicked our ass.”
Still, the Aces aren’t done yet
One interpretation of Hammon’s postgame comments may have been that the decorated head coach was coming to terms with the fact that a three-peat might not be in the cards.
But, she made certain to state the series was far from over — and that Las Vegas was going to put up a fight.
“At the end of the day, we haven’t either lost, or won a championship. Nothing has been won tonight,” Hammon said. “Now, do we have an uphill battle? Absolutely, we do. There’s no doubt about that. However, all New York did was do what New York should do, which is defend their home court. It’s a series. We fully intend on pushing it five games, but we got to take it quarter by quarter — can’t get ahead of ourselves.”
The Aces will head home to the Michelob ULTRA Center for Game 3, which will take place on Friday at 9:30pm ET. A win would extend the series to four games. A loss would end the quest for a three-peat, once and for all.
“Let there be no doubt,” Hammon said, wrapping up an impassioned 13 minutes at the podium. “We’re in for a war. And a big one.”
