Aces' Becky Hammon keeps it 'real' on Liberty after playoff elimination
10/07/2024 11:23 AM
The Las Vegas Aces may have refused to go down without a fight, but in the end, their 2024 season met its premature end and their bid for a three-peat falls at the hands of the New York Liberty after suffering a 76-62 defeat in Game 4 of the WNBA semifinals. Many believed that the Aces were going to round into form sooner than later, but it was very clear that the 2024 iteration of the team was nowhere near the dominant outfit they were over the past two seasons.
Despite boasting the services of A’ja Wilson, the recently-crowned MVP, a star-studded group of Olympians (Kelsey Plum, Jackie Young, Chelsea Gray), and the WNBA’s Sixth Player of the Year Tiffany Hayes, the Aces sleepwalked for a considerable chunk of the 2024 season. Not a single pundit counted them out, but even then, when compared to the Liberty, their concentration levels waned, and they fell to the fourth-seed as a result.
Entering the playoffs as the fourth-seed isn’t the worst position to be in. But it required the Aces to go through the Liberty in the semifinals, and go through they did not. All head coach Becky Hammon could do in the end was throw her hands up in the air and concede that the Liberty were the much better team.
“They’ve been the best team all year — let’s be real. Their group earned it. They earned it all year,” Hammon said following the Aces’ season-ending defeat, via Alexa Philippou of ESPN.
Indeed, for the entirety of the 2024 season, the Liberty were the much hungrier team. It’s not hard to understand why this has been the case. The Liberty franchise haven’t yet won a championship in its history, and they’re raring to redeem themselves after seeing their championship dreams last year crumble at the hands of the Aces.
Failing to win three straight championships shouldn’t be too big of a black eye on Hammon and the Aces’ resume. Only the greatest teams in professional sports have accomplished this feat, and falling short of this goal should not take away from what they achieved in 2022 and 2023. Like the Liberty did with their heartbreaking loss in the WNBA Finals last year, the Aces should use this defeat as the fuel that allows them to bounce back in 2025.
Aces succumb to the pressure of being the hunted
One of the main effects of being the league’s most dominant team over the past two seasons is that it becomes more difficult to maintain the same focus level that allowed them to reach the heights they did. Every team in the WNBA was looking up to the Aces, making them the hunted each and every night. Thus, they had to deal with receiving the best effort and energy from their opponents on nearly every night, and against the Liberty, there was no way that they could coast on talent anymore.
Regardless, the Aces should be back in the championship-contending mix next season, so long as A’ja Wilson stays healthy. Wilson has a chance to become the greatest player in WNBA history when all is said and done, and she’s still in the middle of her prime at 28 years old. The Aces will have to bring back Kelsey Plum in free agency as well; she is one of the best snipers in the entire league, and losing her will be devastating.
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