BROOKLYN — There’s a motive why no skilled basketball workforce has accomplished a three-peat for the reason that Los Angeles Lakers did it within the early 2000s. After Tuesday evening’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 troublesome, acknowledging how human nature comes into impact.
“Fairly frankly, we haven’t had the sting,” Hammon stated. “We discovered it within the final month, I really feel like we’ve gained numerous floor. However, the texture was completely different from the soar.”
A scarcity of an edge is one thing that Hammon has spoken about quite a few events this season. It seemingly performed a job in why the Aces started the yr with a 6-6 file, 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 so much to be desired.
“The quantity of layups we gave up was obscene,” Hammon stated 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 like being within the historical past books,” stated Chelsea Grey, the Aces’ 2022 Finals MVP. “May as effectively form of begin there.”
Nonetheless, the clutch-time Barclay’s Heart loss was a full-circle second for Las Vegas
Final yr, the Aces secured the WNBA championship on the street, defeating the Liberty in 4 video games and clinching the collection with a one-point victory at Barclay’s Heart. That got here regardless of the absences of Chelsea Grey and Kiah Stokes — each rotation gamers who had been misplaced to damage — 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 degree, and including rookie standout Leonie Fiebich, who has been a seamless match within the beginning lineup.
“New York is so much higher than they had been final yr, plain and easy,” Kelsey Plum stated forward of the semi-finals match-up. “When 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 completely different from the soar, and for this reason three-peating is difficult,” Hammon stated. “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 exhausting, 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 underneath Greg Popovich, watched the Spurs fumble a championship once they did not 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 collection 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 yr.
“They lose an absolute heartbreaker, in Miami, off a primary factor, [an] offensive rebound, kick out three,” Hammon stated. “We [the Spurs] ought to have walked away with the title that yr. The subsequent yr, they got here again. They got here again with a lot drive, a lot self-discipline, a lot focus, that there was no approach any person beat them in 2014.”
Hammon likened the Liberty’s 2023 loss to the Spurs’— and in addition 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 extremely freaking powerful hand final yr within the Finals, shedding Chelsea [Gray] and Kia, so I’m certain they really feel like one thing was stolen somewhat 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 stated. “Sport 4. Aside from that, they’ve kicked our ass.”
Nonetheless, the Aces aren’t accomplished but
One interpretation of Hammon’s postgame feedback could have been that the embellished head coach was coming to phrases with the truth that a three-peat won’t be within the playing cards.
However, she made sure to state the collection was removed from over — and that Las Vegas was going to place up a battle.
“On the finish of the day, we haven’t both misplaced, or received a championship. Nothing has been received tonight,” Hammon stated. “Now, do we have now 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 courtroom. It’s a collection. We totally intend on pushing it 5 video games, however we received to take it quarter by quarter — can’t get forward of ourselves.”
The Aces will head residence to the Michelob ULTRA Heart for Sport 3, which is able to happen on Friday at 9:30pm ET. A win would lengthen the collection 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 stated, wrapping up an impassioned 13 minutes on the podium. “We’re in for a battle. And an enormous one.”
