From 0,500 to the final: how Las Vegas Aces took possession and took off in pursuit of their third title in 4 years

Las Vegas – Becky Hammon knows how to disguise the mission.

When his toddle did not eat his broccoli, she told him that if he did it, he could become strong enough to beat his older brother one day. And when her team was not as responsible and involved with each other as they would have liked it, she told them that they were responsible for screening reports.

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“Suddenly, that’s what’s for them,” said Hammon.

Now, its growing boys “shoves in broccoli”, and the AS of Las Vegas are in the WNBA final to continue a third championship in four years. Unlike past seasons when they affirmed the dominance from start to finish, this path required a more concentrated effort as their most improbable journey in the group.

“We crossed the mud for this one,” said A’ja Wilson after winning a 107-98 victory against Indiana fever on Tuesday.

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It will one day become the tradition that the AS 2025 season struck Rock Bottom on August 2 when the Minnesota Lynx hit the AS, 111-58, to Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas. It was the greatest defeat of a home team in the history of the League, and that brought them back to 0,500, barely clinging to the eighth and last place of qualifying series.

Wilson remained dominant, but out of the photo of the MVP while his team was struggling. She and Jackie Young were one of the best duets in the league – the other being the ancient champions of AS Kelsey Plum and Delerica Hamby in Los Angeles – but were not able, in themselves, to find feet out of the sludge.

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Hammon had never planned to give the players’ responsibility to the players, she said in the middle of a complete semi-final series against Indiana last week. And when she did, she did not intend to do it long.

“But that worked so well, and they were so locked up,” said Hammon during the shooting before match 3 in Indiana. “They had team meetings and team discussions without my being there. It is extremely important, and they did it by themselves.

This is what overturned their season, and perhaps what leads to cement their dynasty.

While the ACE championship lists in 2022 and 2023 had their own challenges, it was a more fluid sail. It was not before last year, when the AS finished with a seeded n ° 4, Hammon plunged his toes into the water by making the team a training plan.

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“I sort of went to Bobby Knight about them,” said Hammon. “They found it and what he told me was what they think they are weak. He told me who would naturally take the reins with regard to leadership. Who speaks the most? “

Players have developed an exercise that Hammon always implements from time to time. The most coherent long -term gain is the constantly evolving leadership of Wilson, the Hammon franchise foundation previously described as its “boss”.

Wilson entered the season as a reigning unanimous MVP, but quickly fell from these active conversations when the AS could barely hold the positioning of the playoffs in a 13 team league. This contempt for his talent was “breathtaking” and “infiltrating” in his state of mind, said the eighth year veteran by accepting the honor MVP before the first match of the semi-finals. She read everything that was said about it and on the Aces at the time, choosing to channel it in its leadership for the improvement of the group.

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“We don’t necessarily need MVP all the time,” said Wilson in the morning, she was appointed to her fourth record title. “We need me to be a leader and guide and help my teammates at each stage. And that’s what I took. “

Wilson encouraged his teammates to find their voice in the locker room. She looked at the players who may not speak normally doing it when she made sure that it was only them. And it has become a stamp between the team and Hammon, even if most of the time, everyone thought the same thing.

“Many people in his caliber do not kiss this leadership like that,” Yahoo Sports Nalyssa Smith told Yahoo Sports, which the AS has acquired in a June job. “To get her gladly, I think it was a huge reason why we are so successful.”

Another? The players in the liability card started when they have the task of the screening report. Everyone has a task, and they gently remember each other during the games, in the locker rooms and in group cats. It is kept private among the players.

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“We constantly make sure that we do what we have said that we are going to do,” Wilson said. “When we go to our liability table, we say to ourselves,” Ok, did we hold it responsible for these things? ” Because you told us you were going to do these things. So I think that it is only us, we make sure that we do our job, all of us, from top to bottom. »»

This applies to Wilson to recruits and end of bench players who will not arrive in the game. Aaliyah Nye, the choice of draft of the second round of the team, played 10 minutes, all in time of the garbage, during the first two laps. One of her checks remains ready if she enters a match, she said.

“This is a way we can stand responsible without the coaches really knowing what it is,” Nye told Yahoo Sports. “I think it worked a lot.”

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This intimacy is essential.

As close as Wilson and Hammon – and the link is clear every time they sit in front of a camera – they don’t need to do it, and they don’t feel that they should be transparent with each other about everything. Hammon does not know, for example, exactly what was said in the locker room after this loss of 53 points of the Minnesota. All she knows is that they had enough.

“They verify each other with each other, which is more important,” said Hammon.

Wilson, sitting on the right in the court seats after a semi-finals practice, is ready with the replica of the boost.

“We love it, but we don’t include it,” she said, laughing.

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Wilson conducts the accusation on screening reports, a laptop in hand, while the guards share what they saw in the field with messages, and vice versa. The acquisition of the task of the screening report meant that the team had collectively turned to the lead on a match plan without initiation by Hammon, deputy coach Charlene Thomas-Swinson or first-year assistants Ty Ellis and Larry Lewis. And when the crew intervenes to discuss, Wilson often asked for 15 minutes of time reserved for players to reassess.

“Sometimes coaches have their opinions against our opinion,” Smith told Yahoo Sports. “I think it’s very, very good for us to have our ideas and compare it to the coaches, then we meet with a big idea.”

Hammon always asks for reasoning. “Why do you want to do it that way?” She will ask and deliver a counter. Against the Sparks, led by their former teammates Aces Hamby and Plum, she told the team that a defensive plan against their pick-and-roll would not work. She loved the match, but asked for something else.

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“I am always interested in their thoughts and what they feel, because in the end, I can think so,” said Hammon. “This is another thing for them to believe and execute it.”

There was not much time to wallow after this defeat in August against the lynx. The Aces welcomed Golden State the following night, starting a sequence of 16 consecutive victories to end the regular season and go second in the ranking. They survived complete series with Seattle and Indiana to reach their fourth final in six years.

Two months ago, the AS waded. But Wilson’s days read on people who write his team and asking him what the problem is a distant memory. Even if it was his team for all these appearances in the final, it is different.

“The more property you can get to take their baby,” said Hammon. “It works better.”