BROOKLYN — There’s a purpose why no skilled basketball workforce has accomplished a three-peat because the Los Angeles Lakers did it within the early 2000s. After Tuesday night time’s Sport 2 loss towards the New York Liberty, Las Vegas Aces head coach Becky Hammon make clear what makes retaining a championship-level consideration to element for 3 consecutive seasons so tough, acknowledging how human nature comes into impact.
“Fairly frankly, we haven’t had the sting,” Hammon mentioned. “We discovered it within the final month, I really feel like we’ve gained loads of floor. However, the texture was totally different from the leap.”
A scarcity of an edge is one thing that Hammon has spoken about plenty of events this season. It seemingly performed a task in why the Aces started the 12 months with a 6-6 report, and and why they dropped Sport 1 — a loss that Hammon deemed effort-related. And, whereas the hassle was higher in Sport 2, Hammon acknowledged that the efficiency nonetheless left quite a bit to be desired.
“The quantity of layups we gave up was obscene,” Hammon mentioned after the 88-84 loss.
Although the Aces completed the common season with an undeniably higher focus than they started it, they nonetheless weren’t the identical workforce that dominated the WNBA en path to back-to-back championships in 2022 and 2023.
Now, they discover themselves in an 0-2 gap within the semi-finals, a deficit that no WNBA workforce has ever overcome — although it’s not one the workforce believes is insurmountable.
“I really like being within the historical past books,” mentioned Chelsea Grey, the Aces’ 2022 Finals MVP. “Would possibly as properly type of begin there.”
Nonetheless, the clutch-time Barclay’s Middle loss was a full-circle second for Las Vegas
Final 12 months, the Aces secured the WNBA championship on the street, defeating the Liberty in 4 video games and clinching the sequence with a one-point victory at Barclay’s Middle. That got here regardless of the absences of Chelsea Grey and Kiah Stokes — each rotation gamers who had been misplaced to harm — and ended with Courtney Vandersloot airballing a possible game-winning jumper within the waning seconds.
The heartbreaking loss has famously served as gasoline for New York all season, and Hammon and the Aces have repeatedly acknowledged that Liberty got here again higher this season — each enhancing a person stage, and including rookie standout Leonie Fiebich, who has been a seamless match within the beginning lineup.
“New York is quite a bit higher than they had been final 12 months, plain and easy,” Kelsey Plum mentioned forward of the semi-finals match-up. “In the event you go down the road, like pound for pound, individually — all of them are higher.”
After the Sport 2 loss, Hammon acknowledged that whereas different groups improved, her workforce handled distractions within the wake of their extended success.
“The sector was totally different from the leap, and that is why three-peating is difficult,” Hammon mentioned. “Let’s be actual, the entire league has been pissed off for the final eight months, and my gamers are in commercials, and this, and that, and being freaking celebrities — and also you get distracted. That’s why it’s onerous, as a result of human nature is distracting.”
Hammon additionally drew a parallel between the 2024 Liberty-Aces semi-finals rematch and the 2014 Finals rematch between the San Antonio Spurs and Miami Warmth. Hammon, who served as an assistant coach beneath Greg Popovich, watched the Spurs fumble a championship after they didn’t safe a defensive rebound on the conclusion of Sport 6 of the NBA Finals in 2013, permitting Warmth sharpshooter Ray Allen to sink a nook three when the sequence would have in any other case ended.
The Warmth finally secured the title within the subsequent Sport 7, one of many extra stunning comeback wins in trendy skilled basketball. However, the Spurs got here again to decisively win all of it the next 12 months.
“They lose an absolute heartbreaker, in Miami, off a primary factor, [an] offensive rebound, kick out three,” Hammon mentioned. “We [the Spurs] ought to have walked away with the title that 12 months. The subsequent 12 months, they got here again. They got here again with a lot drive, a lot self-discipline, a lot focus, that there was no means any person beat them in 2014.”
Hammon likened the Liberty’s 2023 loss to the Spurs’— and likewise in contrast the 2 groups’ responses to the heartbreak.
“I nonetheless suppose we [the Aces] had been the higher workforce, however we had been dealt a very freaking powerful hand final 12 months within the Finals, dropping Chelsea [Gray] and Kia, so I’m certain they really feel like one thing was stolen a little bit bit.”
This season, the Liberty are 5-0 towards the Aces, together with the 2 playoff wins.
“On the finish of day, in two years, we’ve received right here one time,” Hammon mentioned. “Sport 4. Apart from that, they’ve kicked our ass.”
Nonetheless, the Aces aren’t carried out but
One interpretation of Hammon’s postgame feedback might have been that the embellished head coach was coming to phrases with the truth that a three-peat may not be within the playing cards.
However, she made sure to state the sequence was removed from over — and that Las Vegas was going to place up a struggle.
“On the finish of the day, we haven’t both misplaced, or received a championship. Nothing has been received tonight,” Hammon mentioned. “Now, do we’ve an uphill battle? Completely, we do. There’s little doubt about that. Nevertheless, all New York did was do what New York ought to do, which is defend their residence court docket. It’s a sequence. We totally intend on pushing it 5 video games, however we acquired to take it quarter by quarter — can’t get forward of ourselves.”
The Aces will head residence to the Michelob ULTRA Middle for Sport 3, which is able to happen on Friday at 9:30pm ET. A win would lengthen the sequence to 4 video games. A loss would finish the hunt for a three-peat, as soon as and for all.
“Let there be little doubt,” Hammon mentioned, wrapping up an impassioned 13 minutes on the podium. “We’re in for a struggle. And a giant one.”
