LAS VEGAS — Among the many buzzwords Becky Hammon has used during her three-year run as head coach of the Las Vegas Aces, perhaps her favorite is “habits.”
Success relies on building habits.
“You don’t get to flip a switch,” Hammon said. “It’s the beautiful thing about sports, actually. The work and the commitment and the buy-in and the play-hard and want-to and the will, will always show up in the end.”
The Aces simply didn’t have the right habits in 2024. Their defense, which led the league in 2023, was fifth (100.3 points per 100 possessions) at the All-Star break. Their shooting suffered, as their 3-point percentage dipped from 37.2 in 2023 to 34.8 before the Olympics. A team that set the WNBA wins record (34) in 2023 en route to back-to-back titles matched its total losses by the 12th game of 2024.
Las Vegas was without its edge for most of the season, only really discovering that by the final 10 games. At that point, the damage had been done. The Aces had dug themselves too big of a hole, and the rest of the league caught up.
The Liberty loaded up on size to counter Las Vegas’ movement. The Lynx revamped their offense, spreading the floor and increasing their volume of 3s. Connecticut doubled down on its toughness, suffocating opponents defensively. The other contenders were able to hone in on their strengths while the Aces barely saw theirs in action. Their singular greatness never coalesced into more than the sum of its parts. Their players couldn’t amplify one another, simply letting individuals carry the team on alternating nights.
That meant fourth-seeded Las Vegas had to play Seattle, a historically good first-round opponent, before starting the semifinals in Barclays Center, a place where the Aces have won just once in seven tries over the last two years. Whatever edge they had summoned over the final quarter of the season petered out, and they ran out of gas.
“At the end of the day, I thought our shortcomings stood out a little bit,” Hammon said. “We have some great things to build on, (but) you don’t have it every year. It’s not the way this works.”
New York seized upon those weaknesses Sunday night in its decisive 76-62 Game 4 victory. The Liberty pummeled Las Vegas on the glass, winning the rebound battle 55-37, including a 13-4 margin on offensive rebounds. With the Aces trying to protect the rim, New York won the 3-point battle 10-7 (on six fewer attempts) and still managed to outscore Las Vegas in the paint 30-28 with a barrage of fourth-quarter layups.
Thank you @LVAces Until next season! pic.twitter.com/d6zjfRgzsJ
— Las Vegas Aces News (@LVAcesNews) October 6, 2024
It was a continuation of shooting woes and defensive issues that have plagued the Aces all season. Despite the hope that they could conjure some of their 2023 magic, they reverted to the habits that had defined them during the regular season, and it wasn’t enough to get the job done. A Game 3 victory, on a night that Hammon called her team’s most complete game of the season, wasn’t a promising sign of what was yet to come for Las Vegas. Rather, it was a blip on the radar, a fleeting reminder of what the Aces had been instead of what they actually were this season.
“This year really kind of set its home for us going into the offseason about how we want to handle things,” A’ja Wilson said.
Las Vegas now heads into a pivotal offseason. It will likely lose one rotation player or young prospect beyond the core four to the expansion draft, whether that is Kiah Stokes, Megan Gustafson, Kierstan Bell or Kate Martin. Kelsey Plum is an unrestricted free agent, though the Aces can core her, but it is the first time that one of the team’s stars has hit free agency without signing an extension.
The bench wasn’t deep enough in 2024. The coaching staff had faith in only three frontcourt players for much of the season, but one of those players is 5-foot-11 and another doesn’t get guarded by opponents in the playoffs. Among their perimeter reserves, Tiffany Hayes was retired to start the season and hasn’t committed to sticking around while Sydney Colson’s offensive limitations made it tough to play her extended minutes.
The Aces also will have to navigate a new league dynamic. The league is stronger and deeper than when Las Vegas won its first title. The Aces helped engineer a stylistic revolution over the past three years, bringing pace and space to the WNBA and opening up the floor for high-powered individual performances. The rest of the league has caught on, however, which means Las Vegas has to figure out what comes next.
“They’ve made us a better team,” New York guard Sabrina Ionescu said. “To do what they’ve done is not easy. We’ve gotten there and lost, they’ve gotten there and won twice, and it’s a testament to their togetherness, their experience, how hard it is that they’re wanting to go out there and be their best every night, and they’ve laid down the foundation. And they’ve continued to motivate everyone in the league to just want to be better and want to win championships.”
Regardless of who ends up on the Aces’ 2025 roster, their only path to get back to competing for titles is to put in the work during the offseason and get in reps that will pay dividends come next October. Wilson said she’ll get back in the lab in December, and Hammon says she expects a different level of focus to start training camp.
Las Vegas also has the motivating factor of defeat.
“We’re gonna have a lot of hard learning lessons,” Hammon said. “It hurts now, I promise you it’s going to hurt tomorrow, probably worse because it sets in the next day, but you got to build habits, you gotta work in a way that you believe you deserve to win.”
The Aces didn’t deserve to win in 2024. They lost to a better team, a team that was more consistent and less complacent throughout the season. For the last few years, Las Vegas has set the pace. Now, there is a new standard to meet.
(Photo of A’ja Wilson and Aces players: Barry Gossage / NBAE via Getty Images)
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5823797/2024/10/06/las-vegas-aces-loss-wnba-semifinals-liberty/
