The Las Vegas Aces are in uncharted territory. The 95-68 loss to the Golden State Valkyries on Saturday marked the third-largest defeat for the Aces (4-3) in the Becky Hammon era. It was also their second loss by more than 20 points this season, the first time they’ve had more than one in a season under Hammon’s leadership. What’s happening isn’t the Aces team we’re used to seeing. The Valkyries set the tone, mainly through their defense. They forced A’ja Wilson to commit three turnovers in the first quarter, and the Aces had seven as a team, both season highs. After going up by two points after the first quarter, Golden State led by 21 at halftime after outscoring Las Vegas 34-15 in the second quarter. It was the second time this season that the Aces have been down by at least 20 points at halftime. Hammon noted that the common denominator was the Aces’ lack of effort.
Wilson, the current league MVP, was limited to eight points in the first half and finished with 17 on 5 of 13 shooting.It’s just that we are mentally soft and we let people intimidate us… and we complain instead of making an effort and saying: ‘OK, if it’s going to be like that, let’s go for it’. I told them that the effort has to come from the heart. The schemes, the discipline, the habits, that’s the head. Right now we not only have a heart problem, but it’s becoming a head problem.
Becky Hammon
Golden State constantly sent multiple players to guard Wilson, rotating double teams on her, collapsing the defense, and even presenting box-and-one defenses. It was nothing out of the ordinary. For the short time I’ve been playing in this league, I’ve generated some double teams and different looks… I don’t think that has slowed me down, but I do think it caused a bit of a shock to us… We have to do a better job as a team understanding what teams want to take away from us. Everyone knows how talented we are, so we have to analyze it. The Valkyries have followed a similar pattern in their inaugural season, staying with their opponents or even building a lead in the first half, only to give it all back in the third quarter or in the final stretch.She’s the best player in the world. We all know it. She’s capable of scoring 50. [So] keep that in mind. A’ja is capable of scoring 50.
Natalie Nakase
Kayla Thornton of Golden State had the first 20-point double-double of her career, with 22 points and 11 rebounds. Veronica Burton achieved her first double-double with 14 points and 12 assists, while Monique Billings finished with 14 points and 11 rebounds. It’s the first time this season that a team has three players recording double-doubles in the same game.You never let your guard down against a team especially loaded with that kind of talent. So at halftime, I mean, the score is 0-0. We can’t play for the score.
Natalie Nakase
Hammon said the Aces’ poor defense was directly impacted by the team missing “wide open” shots on the other end. The Aces shot 35.5% from the field, their third-worst shooting performance of the season, and only 24% from the 3-point line, their worst mark this year.
Meanwhile, the Valkyries shot 47.9% from the field, the best mark of the season, including a season-high 35.7% from the 3-point line.This team, we have to decide who we want to be in each game. We hold a team to 70 one night and then come out here and give up almost 100. I don’t know if they’ve scored 100 all year. It’s a good old-fashioned beatdown. They outplayed us in every aspect of the game. It’s one of the worst games I’ve seen from us.
Becky Hammon
