LAS VEGAS — Throughout the most eventful season of her short tenure with the Las Vegas Aces, head coach Becky Hammon kept coming back to one simple overarching reason for the struggles. On the verge of an early elimination in the WNBA semifinals, she took advantage again.
The two-time defending champion Aces did not have the advantage needed to win it again.
“It felt different than jumping,” Hammon said after the Aces lost Game 2 in New York. “And that’s why it’s difficult to do three rounds. Let’s be realistic. The whole league has been angry for a month, and my players are in commercials and this and that, and they’re fucking celebrities and you’re distracted. That’s why it’s difficult. Because human nature is distracting.
The Aces season could end as early as Friday evening in the third game at the Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas. The New York Liberty, who have yet to lose a game to Las Vegas this season, embark on what should be an exhilarating rematch of the WNBA Finals that went the full five-game distance.
Hammon, who entered the series 18-2 in the playoffs and 2-for-2 in the championships during his tenure as head coach, sees the advantage in New York. The Liberty had to watch their rival Aces, playing without two starters, win on their home court last year in Game 4. They missed an opportunity in the final seconds to force game five.
“I’m sure they feel like something was stolen at the end of the day,” Hammon said after the second game. The Aces did not hold a practice or speak to the media Thursday.
Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello, a self-described “glass half full” person, turned that pain into a metaphor about healing scars and making a person stronger. That’s what the Liberty exploited all season long en route to the No. 1 seed that the Aces held for two years.
“Becky is out there trying to (figure out) how she’s going to motivate her team,” Brondello said before the Liberty’s practice in Las Vegas on Thursday. “But I don’t think we need that motivation because we remember what it feels like. It’s just to remind (and) remember last year. We are a much better team now. Don’t let this feeling overwhelm you, use it as motivation and remember what it feels like when we play really well and in the right way.
The Liberty organization and many of its players are eagerly chasing their first WNBA titles. Jonquel Jones is 0-3 in finals. Sabrina Ionescu, who starred with Aces forward A’ja Wilson in a CarMax commercial, never won in college and had her last chance at an NCAA Final Four snatched away by the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 in 2020. Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, the most 2020 Improved player is a former second-round pick often overlooked in a league where most never have a long career.
Four-time NCAA champion Breanna Stewart won a WNBA title with Seattle in 2018, but didn’t get a chance to repeat when she tore her Achilles tendon overseas the following April. After winning in 2020, the 2021 Storm lost to a hot Phoenix team in Brondello’s final season in the desert when the format was single-elimination in the second round.
Trying to repeat in the pros, she said, is different than doing it in college.
“These series are physically draining, but also mentally,” Stewart said at practice Thursday. “It’s like a game of chess.”
Courtney Vandersloot’s Chicago Sky team won the 2021 title over Phoenix in a rare clash between the No. 5 and 6 seeds. All four standout starters, including Vandersloot, re-signed during the offseason to move the Sky from 2021 underdog status to legitimate title contenders.
“I think, first of all, you’re the hunted, aren’t you?” Vandersloot said during practice Thursday. “The most important thing is that everyone wants to beat you. And I think another obstacle is relying on things that worked last year (and) that may not work this year. We feel like we have the answer, the plan, because you did it last year and it’s not necessarily the same thing the following year.
The Houston Comets are the only WNBA team to win a three-peat. It was a completely different era when they won the first four league titles. This has been done five times in the NBA by three franchises. The last ones were the Kobe Bryant-Shaquille O’Neal of the Los Angeles Lakers in 2000-02. Three-peaters are rare in any professional sport and almost non-existent over the past two decades.
“That’s what great teams do, is being able to repeat or win multiple times, is being able to find what works best next time,” Vandersloot said.
The leader of the Aces, Chelsea Gray, understood this well from the pre-season.
“No year has ever been the same to win a championship, so you start creating those habits from the first day of training camp,” » Gray said during a video call in May. “And I think the rest takes care of itself. You kind of have to take it day by day and not look too far ahead. »
After the second game loss, Gray described the advantage as the way they dive on the floor, box well enough so the opponent doesn’t touch the ball, show swagger after knocking away a shot, and give l global energy. Yes, she thinks this can be captured in the middle of the playoffs.
The time to find him is diminishing, otherwise what lies ahead is an early offseason for the first time in Hammon’s tenure.
