The Las Vegas Aces are the next great American sports dynasty
TThe Las Vegas Aces made it look so easy for so long during their record-breaking romp to a second straight championship that it was only fitting that they had to finish it the hard way. Trailing by two starters and trailing the New York Liberty by double digits in the third quarter of Wednesday night’s Game 4 of the WNBA finals, the Aces appeared on pace for a second straight loss and a fifth winner-take-all game on Friday in Las Vegas. Vegas. Standing on shaky legs, their ball movement sloppy and error-ridden, they were given no quarter by a deafening crowd of 16,851 hostile spectators in a building where they had lost each of their three previous visits this year by an average margin of 20 points.
Then it came, more of a trickle than a deluge, but steady nonetheless. A running jumper by offensive dynamo Jackie Young. Back-to-back three-pointers from Cayla George, the former Australian WNBL MVP, making her first career playoff start. Nine consecutive points from A’ja Wilson, the world’s best player today, undoubtedly inspired by her MVP minute. Two quick baskets from veteran Alysha Clark in the final minute. Suddenly the undermanned Aces found themselves leading by two going into fourth place and would never be behind again, eventually celebrating their 70-69 victory in a center court crowd in front of a silenced arena after a final shot from Courtney Vandersloot from New York missed the target. .
“All we did was hang on and keep playing. That was our mantra: keep playing,” Aces coach Becky Hammon said. “This is proof that your character, like your culture, will be. And if you have a bad character, you don’t have that culture. And we had plenty of time to fall apart. But because of their character and the culture we’ve built, you can’t crack this group. You just can’t do that.”
The unflappable Wilson, who scored 24 points and 16 rebounds on Wednesday and was the runaway choice for the WNBA finals Most Valuable Player, is the bandleader of the next great American sports dynasty. Denied a third regular-season MVP trophy from New York’s Breanna Stewart in one of the closest races everthe 6-foot-1 forward was as dominant as ever in the playoffs, averaging 23.8 points (on 55.4% shooting), 11.8 rebounds and 2.3 blocked shots as the Aces won all but one of their nine matches. Their much-hyped clash between the superteams in the final was largely a mismatch.
Simply put, these Aces are one of the best teams ever seen in men’s or women’s basketball, at least since the Kevin Durant Warriors. The numbers certainly support this claim: Las Vegas won a WNBA-record 34 games during the regular season (although the Aces benefited from an extended 40-game schedule) and set the all-time mark for best offensive rating at 113 points per 100 possessions. . The execution, the intensity, the discipline and the attention to detail: they are so selfless, so dialed in and everyone looks like they are having a good time.
But their team’s strength outside of their familiar six-player rotation got a rare spotlight Wednesday when they took the floor without starting point guard Chelsea Gray (the MVP of last year’s finals) and starting center Kiah Stokes, both of whom suffered foot injuries. in Game 3. Their replacements, George and Colson, both shined despite receiving minimal playing time during the regular season or the playoffs, making Las Vegas the first team in WNBA history to win a postseason game without multiple starters out the previous game.
“It’s who we are,” said a delighted Wilson between sips of Armand de Brignac champagne. “We are professionals. We’re ready when our name is called. And we kept the main thing, the main thing. This shit wasn’t easy at all, and a lot of people counted us out. A lot of people counted us down from the jump. Many people here said: ‘Freedom in five.’ We know. So that just fueled us.
“People considered us back-to-back champions. So that shit fueled us. We read it. We see it. And it fueled us, so thank you. That says a lot about us. We were ready to play and everyone doubted us. We just kept our foot on the gas.”
It has to be said: this is what investing in women’s sports looks like. Yes, Las Vegas has basketball’s best core four: Wilson, Gray, Young and the brilliant Kelsey Plum. But Mark Davis has spared no effort to help them maximize their potential by cultivating an organizational culture that stands as the gold standard in women’s sports alongside Olympique Lyonnais Féminin.
Since purchasing the Aces nearly three years ago, the owner of the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders has poached Hammon from the NBA on a record $1 million contract and spent $40 million on it an ultra-modern practice space of 80,000 m² which is the first women’s-specific, unshared training facility in the WNBA’s 27-year history. The Results speak for themselves.
It wasn’t all good feelings during their repeat bid. After former player Dearica Hamby was traded to the LA Sparks in January, she claimed she was bullied and manipulated by Hammon because she was pregnant. filed a gender discrimination complaint against the WNBA and the Aces with the Nevada Equal Rights Commission and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (The coach and team have refuted the claims.) In addition, Hammon was also suspended for two games and the team recorded a 2025 first-round draft pick in a separate case involving a violation of league rules regarding to unacceptable player advantages.
But it has had little impact on their performance between the lines.
“We went from darling to villain very quickly,” said Hammon, a six-time WNBA All-Star as a player and barrier-breaking NBA assistant coach who was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame earlier this year. “Our good name was slandered. All these women did was lock up together. You ask why I’m so confident? It’s because I know exactly who is in that locker room. I know exactly who I’m going to war with every day. This is the tightest group I’ve ever been with.
“This team has had a thousand chances to fall apart. You name it, we’ve seen it this year. And all this team has done is go deeper with each other, go deeper with each other.”
The bad news for the Aces’ rivals is that basketball’s best foursome – Wilson, Plum, Young and Gray – are each under contract through 2024. After destroying a New York superteam tailor-made to take them to dethrone, there is little doubt that they will be the favorites for the second three-peat in WNBA history, following the Houston Comets, who captured four straight titles from 1997 through 2000. But for now, enjoying the second one will be enough.
“This one’s sweeter,” Hammon said. “It just is. It’s harder to do.”