June 8, 2023, CT Sun star Dewanna Bonner is in her bag. In fact, she has her 41-piece double combo fries in her bag next to her. Cut the paint and get an easy 2? Just do it. Knock everyone on the floor? Allowed. Las Vegas Aces head coach Becky Hammon was furious, and she told her team after the game. It seemed to be a wake-up call for the Aces.
There were few challenges until the trip to Connecticut early in the campaign, which was exactly what the ball club needed to realize what it would take to get back to where it was last year.
The whole team is on fire Hammon’s statement After that game, it was a matter of taking the next step defensively. No one has been better than him since June 11.
That theme of relentless resistance has been paramount so far in this postseason. Despite scoring 90 or more points in three of their last five games, the A’s haven’t allowed an opponent to score more than 85 points since Aug. 28 in New York.
With a spot in the Finals on the line, the Aces held on. The ball pressure was intense. With a rotation over help led by Eiza Wilson, Las Vegas held Arike Ogunbowale, one of the W’s best scorers, to 25 percent shooting over the final 10 minutes.
With 1:30 left and a one-point lead, the defending champions pieced together several special defensive possessions. All five players communicated and worked in unison. It was Hammon’s dream. The Wings didn’t make a single field goal in the final 4:58 of the game. The Vegas coach couldn’t contain her excitement. Her smile after the game was that of a proud coach who saw her team take on the challenge and dominate.
Hammon kept it real After finishing the game away from home, “It’s just showing that we can win with defense. It’s not always nice to see. These are the games where you actually have to find a way to win.”
She continued, “When the ball is out and we’re scoring 90 and 100 points, it’s easy for us. When we have to win like this and prove to ourselves that we can win like this, it’s not always about offense, it’s about rebounding and defense. We did a great job right up until the end.”
If Vegas can continue that kind of defensive efficiency, they’ll become just the second team since 2015 to have a playoff defensive rating below 90. The versatility on the floor starts and ends with Wilson, a two-time WNBA Defensive Player of the Year. The former South Carolina star was the only player in the W to average more than two blocks per 40 minutes.
You can see it vividly, and her emotions on the floor really explain how much defense means to her in the world. She attacks you defensively like your mother with a camera on a family vacation.
It doesn’t end at number 22.
Remember that 2020 Seattle Storm championship team? Current Ace member Alicia Clark was instrumental in that team’s success, especially defensively. Making the 2020 All-Defensive First Team forward was an early sign that Hammon wanted to focus on defense. It paid off. Clark did everything Vegas asked of her off the bench.
Guess who Satou Sabali’s main defender was in the last 10 seconds of Game 3? It was from Middle Tennessee.
Don’t miss Kiah Stokes, too. The 2023 WNBA Sixth Player of the Year tied her career high in steals and averaged more than 0.9 blocks per game for the first time in three years. Stokes and Clark were the only two Aces players with a defensive rating under 96 in 20-plus games in 2023.
All of this is accompanied by Chelsea Gray, Kelsey Plum, and Jackie Young, three perimeter players who constantly cause havoc. Young and Plum both increased their steal totals from 2022, and their “Point GAWDDD” matches their totals from last season.
That’s the true definition of a complete team. Hammon’s team mostly did that against Dallas, but with Liberty on tap, the challenge gets harder.
This year’s WNBA Finals will be one for the ages. We can’t wait. Are you ready?
Action photos courtesy of Getty Images. Portrait by Atiba Jefferson.
