Becky Hammon’s message could not have been much clearer. With the WNBA season resuming after the 2026 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup, the Las Vegas Aces will be facing the genuine challenge of reintegrating several key players and rebuilding their usual rhythm in a compressed window. And while Hammon acknowledged that the international break has hit her team particularly hard, she has no interest in leaning on it as an excuse.

Speaking at a training session, a video of which was shared on the ESPN Las Vegas YouTube channel on Tuesday, Hammon was asked about the challenges of coming back off a break of this nature. And her answer was as direct as she tends to be. 

“I mean, it’s a funky rhythm for everybody,” Hammon said. “Everybody’s going to have to kind of just dive right in and hit the ground running. Every team is in the same kind of situation to a certain degree. Obviously, with how many players you have gone, it hits us a little bit differently. New York probably hit a little bit differently. Those teams that have multiple people on international teams. So, you know, nobody cares. Nobody feels sorry for us.”

Four Aces players, Chelsea Gray and Jackie Young with Team USA, Stephanie Talbot with Australia, and Mai Yamamoto with Japan, ultimately suited up at the World Cup in Berlin, which concluded on September 13. In fact, five Aces players were initially on national team rosters, but superstar A’ja Wilson eventually did not play for Team USA after stepping away because she was not feeling 100% physically.

Like Hammon pointed out, the Las Vegas Aces were definitely not the most affected team by the international departures. The New York Liberty, for instance, saw seven of their players head to the World Cup, with one player representing each of the four semifinalist teams. The Washington Mystics were also heavily impacted, with five players departing for the tournament. And like the Aces, the Atlanta Dream and Minnesota Lynx also had four players at the World Cup.

As Hammon made clear, the disruption to training schedules, team cohesion, and game rhythm will inevitably have some telling effect when the regular season resumes on Thursday. But in her view, the time for discussing it has passed. Every team is dealing with a version of the same challenge. The season restarts for everyone simultaneously.

There is, however, a legitimate case to be made that coach Hammon and the Aces hold at least a degree of advantage in the immediate resumption, simply because A’ja Wilson did not play at the World Cup at all. As the Aces’ most indispensable player, her full availability and relative freshness while her teammates return from the rigours of international tournament play could prove meaningful. In fact, when her withdrawal from Team USA was first announced, a number of fans speculated that it was at least partly a calculated decision to preserve Wilson’s fitness for the WNBA playoffs and protect the Aces’ competitive edge. 

However, from what Hammon has said, it is a question of team rhythm rather than freshness. While Wilson may have avoided the physical demands of the World Cup, the Aces still have to rediscover their collective rhythm after a lengthy interruption. And that applies to other teams as well, as they have not been able to play and train altogether for more than two weeks now.

Regardless of the tactical interpretations surrounding Wilson’s absence from Berlin, the Aces head into their remaining stretch of the regular season in a strong position. They currently sit third in the overall standings with a playoff berth already secured. 

With four regular season games remaining, two against the Seattle Storm, one against the Los Angeles Sparks, and one against the Phoenix Mercury, they will be hoping to hit the ground running immediately. Their first game back is against the Storm on Thursday. Winning it comfortably, according to expectation, would be the ideal statement that the World Cup break has not disrupted the momentum they built before it began.