brooklyn — There is a reason why no professional basketball team achieved a three-peat after the war. Los Angeles Lakers I did it in the early 2000s. After Tuesday night's Game 2 loss to the New York Liberty, Las Vegas Aces head coach Becky Hammon explained why it's so difficult to maintain championship-level attention to detail for the third straight season. and recognized how human nature influences it.
“Frankly, we didn't have an edge yet,” Hammon said. “We found it last month and feel like we've gained a lot of ground. But it felt different than the jump.”
The lack of edge has been something Hammon has talked about many times this season. That seems to be a contributing factor to why the Aces started this year with a 6-6 record, and why they did so well. lost game 1 — Hammon saw it as a loss for the effort. And while his efforts improved in Game 2, Hammon admitted his performance left a lot to be desired.
“The amount of layups we allowed was sneaky,” Hammon said after the game. 88-84 loss.
Although the Aces definitely finished the regular season with better concentration than they started with, they still couldn't be called a team that won the league. WNBA Aiming for consecutive victories in 2022 and 2023.
Now they're in an 0-2 hole in the semifinals, a deficit no WNBA team has ever overcome, but that doesn't mean the team believes it can't be overcome.
Ace's 2022 Finals MVP Chelsea Gray said, “I'm happy to go down in history.'' “Maybe we can start there.”
Still, losing center Barkley in clutch time was a full-circle moment for Las Vegas.
Last year, the Aces defeated Liberty in four games to win the WNBA Championship on the road and close out the series with a win. 1 point victory At Barclays Center. That was done despite the absences of Chelsea Gray and Kia Stokes (both rotation players lost to injury), and Courtney Vandersloot airballed a potential game-winning jumper in the final minute. Finished.
The heartbreaking loss was famously a driving force for New York all season, and Hammon and the Aces continually credited the Liberty with coming back better this season. Both were improvements on an individual level and the addition of rookie standout Leonie Fibich, a starting lineup where he was a perfect fit.
“New York, plain and simple, is a lot better than last year,” Kelsey Plumb said ahead of the semifinal matchup. “Everything is better when done individually, like pound-for-pound.”
After the Game 2 loss, Hammon acknowledged that while other teams improved, her team dealt with the distractions of long-term success.
“The field was different than the jump, which is why a three-peat is difficult,” Hammon said. “The truth is, for the last eight months, the whole league has been angry and our players have been in commercials and this and that and become huge celebrities, so it's distracting. That's why it's so difficult, because human nature is so distracting.”
Hammon also drew similarities between the 2024 Liberty vs. Ace semifinal rematch and the 2014 Liberty vs. Ace final rematch. san antonio spurs And the Miami Heat. Hammon, who served as an assistant coach under Gregg Popovich, lost the championship in the final seconds of Game 6 of the 2013 NBA Finals when the Spurs failed to secure a defensive rebound and allowed the Heat's sharpshooter to score. I witnessed it. Ray Allen sinks a corner 3 When the series would have ended otherwise.
The Heat ultimately clinched the title in the ensuing Game 7, in one of the most shocking come-from-behind victories in modern professional basketball. However, the Spurs came back to win it outright the following year.
“They lost someone in Miami that was absolutely heartbreaking, just from the basics. [an] Offensive rebound, kickout 3,” Hammon said. “we [the Spurs] We should have won the title that year. The following year they returned. They came back with so much drive, discipline and focus that no one could beat them in 2014. ”
Hammon likened the Liberty's 2023 loss to the Spurs' loss and also compared how both teams responded to that heartbreak.
“We still think that [the Aces] We were the better team, but we were really bad in last year's final, losing to Chelsea. [Gray] The same thing happened to Kia, so I'm sure they feel a little bit like they've had something stolen from them. ”
Liberty is 5-0 against the Aces this season, including two wins in the playoffs.
“At the end of the day, we've won here once in the last two years,” Hammon said. “Game 4. Other than that, they kicked our butt.”
Still, Ace isn't finished yet.
One interpretation of Hammon's postgame comments could have been that the award-winning head coach is coming to terms with the fact that a three-peat may not be in the cards.
But she made it clear that the series isn't over yet, and Las Vegas intends to put up a fight.
“At the end of the day, we haven't lost and we haven't won a championship yet. We didn't win anything tonight,” Hammon said. “Now, are we going to struggle? Of course we will. There's no question about that. But all New York did was do what New York was supposed to do, which was protect their home court. It's a series. We're going to go five games, but we have to win every quarter and we can't get ahead.”
The Aces will head to the Michelob Ultra Center for Game 3 on Friday at 9:30 p.m. ET. If they win, the series will be extended to four games. A loss would end the quest for a three-peat once and for all.
“There's no doubt about it,” Hamon said, capping off an exciting 13 minutes on the podium. “We're in a war. And a big one.”
