The Las Vegas Aces are back-to-back WNBA champions, but this season has been far from a smooth ride. They have lost four of their last five games and are currently fifth in the league standings while they struggle with consistency and lack of depth.
The Aces will be taking on the Chicago Sky on Sunday, which will provide them a much needed opportunity to bounce back and show how hungry they are with just one month remaining in the regular season.
"That's something the players gotta bring," Aces coach Becky Hammon said. "They gotta bring the nasty, they gotta bring the aggressive, they gotta bring the sense of urgency, the gotta bring physicality. We'll see who does and we'll play who does."
Las Vegas and Chicago have faced each other twice this season and so far have split the series. The Sky won their last encounter 93-85 right before the Olympic break, but the Aces didn't exactly have too much time to sit down and analyze that one. The following few weeks were a much-welcomed pause for most of the WNBA, but the Aces had six players competing in the 2024 Paris Olympics, four of them with Team USA.
Despite the situation, Aces guard Kelsey Plum said her team can't think much about that.
"I think there is a point in every season where it definitely becomes mental more than anything," Plum said earlier this week. "Obviously people have had a month off. Six of us haven't, so that's definitely a unique situation but it's not an excuse."
Rest could be one culprit for their recent struggles, but there are other concerns the team has had all season. One of the major issues for the Aces has been staying locked in on defense, which was one of their strengths in 2023.
They got the job done against the Los Angeles Sparks with an 87-71 win last Sunday, but Hammon was not happy when the Aces lost to the Minnesota Lynx 98-87 three days later. Minnesota shot almost 60% from the field and went 11-for-19 from beyond the arc. That was the eighth time this season the Aces have allowed 90+ points.
"I don't really care where we are, in a hole, on top of a mountain. I don't care, you need to play some defense," Hammon said that night. "Until we do that, we might as well be digging a hole.
"...Until we get our defensive identity and we stick to it, we are going to continue to struggle. We made so many mistakes, and it was my big dogs making mistakes. It's hard to overcome."
The Aces met the Lynx again on Friday and fell once more, this time with an 87-74 result. Hammon said the defense was better but there were other issues. Lynx forward Napheesa Collier grabbed 18 of her team's 37 rebounds on Friday, while the entire Aces roster only got 17. The Aces also conceded 18 points off 21 turnovers.
Las Vegas entered the 2024 season as the favorite to win another title with its core four players -- Wilson, Plum, Jackie Young and Chelsea Gray. However, the journey has been rough since the beginning as they played their first 12 games without Gray, who was dealing with a foot injury. They started 6-6, which was very much unexpected as last year they went 36-6 to earn their second consecutive title.
Gray returned but she doesn't look quite like her old self and, even with her on the roster, the Aces have struggled with depth for a while. In fact, Las Vegas had the lowest-scoring bench in the league when they won their 2022 and 2023 titles.
Wilson is currently leading the team with 26.9 points, 11.9 rebounds, 2.7 blocks and two steals per game. Plum and Young are the other two most consistent contributors on offense with 18.2 and 17.9 points per contest.
Earlier this season, Wilson became the first player ever with three consecutive games of at least 20 points and 15 rebounds. She has registered 17 games with at least 20 points and 10 rebounds and is in the middle of a historic season. However, it might not matter much if her team doesn't figure things out by the time the playoffs roll around.
"After All-Star break, I try to treat everything like a playoff game," Wilson said. "Whether it's back to back games or not, this is the time where you need to start ramping up and start getting to your system. Do I like the scheduling? No, because I want more rest. But do I treat every game like a playoff game after All-Star? Yeah, 100%. It is what it is, we go from there."
The Aces (17-11) will be facing the Sky (11-17) at Wintrust Arena in Chicago on Sunday at noon ET on CBS.