Coming into tonight’s clash, both the Mystics and Aces were stuck in the same rut with 9 wins, 10 losses. Only one could break even. And it was Washington who were able to walk away 10-10, while the 2023 champs fell to 9-11. The last time these two matched up was at the Michelob ULTRA Arena in Vegas. Back then, too, the Aces took it home by a margin of 11 points. This time, even though the gap was closer, it stung harder. Because, according to HC Becky Hammon, the entire blame for the loss wasn’t the squad’s to take.

Seems like her old strategy of leaning on physicality finally caught up to her. After all, she once admitted it herself during a matchup with the Fever: “She (Caitlin Clark) is a beast … and she’s just going to continue to keep getting better,” Hammon said. “But she’s a player you have to be physical with. If you just follow her around, she’s going to cook you for dinner.” But this time, against the Mystics, that physical edge didn’t quite pay off. Rather, the postgame presser ended with a moment of atonement. “Tell me how much my fine is,” she said with frustration.

But where did the frustration stem from? The first 70 seconds of the presser are enough to tell you all about that. She said, “I didn’t have enough challenges tonight. I thought the officiating was awful.” Poor officiating has been a recurring issue all season long. And there isn’t a single franchise whose coach hasn’t sounded the alarm. “Jackie Young got fouled at 33 seconds on that layup, no call. Meanwhile, down at the other end, like I said, I would have challenged seven more calls and won them. I have no idea what that was. Awful,” expanded Hammon.

Unfortunately for Vegas, Hammon didn’t have any challenges left. Although she did not externalize the blame entirely on referees Michael Price, Blanca Burns and Gina Cross. Rather, being the coach who has led the Aces franchise to a championship not once but twice, you already know that she’s her own best critic. She passingly mentioned, “Our defense was probably similarly awful, though.” It made complete sense considering how the things went down especially towards the end.

Because the Aces somehow managed to blow a 15-point lead and shot just 12% from 3-point land. They had a negative assist-turnover ratio, and got outscored 12-2 in the final 3 minutes of the game. The reporter went on to ask about another disappointing officiating moment though. It came towards the end of the game when Hammon called a timeout, the officials “granted it, but then didn’t.” To this, Hammon said, “Yeah, I had a reset left, but you can’t reset when the ball’s in the frontcourt. So, it was their ball.” 

Now, the Aces will face Valkyries after a day’s rest who are just a loss away from falling to the 7th overall position. Whereas Vegas is just a win away from climbing to 8th. ESPN predicts that Vegas has a 73.4% chance of emerging as the winner, however only time will tell what really happens.

Becky Hammon highlights another LV Aces squad issue

The Las Vegas Aces have had a rough stint and it isn’t just outside noise anymore. It has turned into a real concern about their locker room. After a loss to an expansion team, Chelsea Gray acknowledged, “It’s uncharted territory right now that we have not seen this side or played like this since we’ve been together and played under [coach] Becky [Hammon].” And the things haven’t gotten any better since then. The defending champions are now 9-11 this season and haven’t managed more than two wins in a row.

Their latest setback was a brutal loss to the Washington Mystics. Unlike their straight defeat against the Liberty, this game was really close. The Aces even led for most of it. At one point, they were even holding a 52-45 edge with just over two minutes left in the third quarter. But then everything fell apart. Washington went on a 9-2 run, and in the final 3:16, the Aces were outscored 12-2. The final blow came with only 5.2 seconds left on the clock. To save Vegas, Chelsea Gray even tried to call a timeout, but the Aces did not have any left.

As painful as that was, Becky Hammon pointed to bigger issues: “We just need to put together a full 40… You could feel the wheels start to come off… I think we missed 17 layups and that’s not even counting the wide open threes.” Really, their offense was off all night. They shot just 12% from three and had more turnovers than assists. Without A’ja Wilson (out with a wrist injury), they lacked their usual anchor, but Hammon didn’t make excuses. She said, “We got good looks. We missed them… you got to have that buckling factor.”

Hopefully for Vegas die-hards, the squad will buckle up in their next showdown against the Golden State Valkyries.