Dana Evans knew what she was talking about when the Aces reached their lowest point in years, dropping below .500 and out of the playoff picture.
She just knew.
"I kept telling them when I won the championship with Chicago (in 2021), we had two (losing) streaks, and we would just continue to tell each other, we got to just keep pushing," Evans said on Aug. 10. "It's going to come together when we need it to."
It did, as the Aces reeled off 16 straight wins to close out the regular season, went 9-3 in the postseason - including surviving a last-second shot in Game 3 of the opening round and an overtime thriller in Game 5 of the semifinals - to win their third WNBA championship in four years with Friday's 97-86 win over the Phoenix Mercury completing a four-game sweep.
Evans was one of five newcomers to a roster that was a mere shell of a team many believed would become the league's next dynasty before bowing out in the 2024 semifinals.
And just when things looked bleak, A'ja Wilson did A'ja Wilson like things, Chelsea Gray returned to form as the best point guard in the league, and Jackie Wilson looked every bit like the best overall guard in the WNBA.
But as Wilson said many times, this team - that core - would be nothing without their role players, including the newcomers.
Evans, Jewell Loyd, NaLyssa Smith, Aaliyah Nye and Cheyenne Parker-Tyus helped coach Becky Hammon meld what just may be the best championship roster the organization has ever seen
It's certainly the most special.
That night, 61 days before they'd host the trophy, Evans said it was the losing streaks that formed team chemistry.
"I feel like that made us come together, like it got us all closer," she said. "We had to lean on each other even more; really just us against everybody."
Evans, who averaged 6.6 points off the bench during the regular season, contributed 8.4 points during the playoffs.
A GEM
Loyd knew it from day one, when she was embraced by a locker room full of women who like to have fun. She said it during media day, and repeated through the darkest times this season. A now three-time champion who left Seattle, where she won her first two, Loyd was looking for a fresh start.
She found it. And she knew it when training camp opened.
"It's a fresh start," Loyd said at the team's facility on April 30. ''You want to play the purity of basketball. You want to be around greatness. You want to have appreciation for everyone - from the coaching staff, to media, to everyone - and that's what you feel here."
Loyd also wanted to do whatever was best for the team, and at its low point, went to Hammon and told her to make her a bench player. Hammon pushed back and eventually gave in.
It worked.
From averaging 10.4 points on 36.3% shooting as a starter, to 12.1 points on 42.3% shooting as a reserve to close the regular season.
In the championship-clinching game, Loyd scored 12 points on 40%shooting, including 50% (4 of 8) from 3-point range, to accompany four rebounds.
After the final horn sounded, she was embraced by Hammon for roughly 20 seconds.
Loyd wept.
"Becky was definitely the person (who) believed in me from the start," Loyd said during the postgame press conference. "I was kind of written off, but that’s how I ended up in the promised land."
THE TRADE
"if i could’ve chose anywhere to go it would’ve been vegas so hella excited 4 this new opportunity wit my goat."
That was the exact tweet from Smith on June 30, upon learning she was being traded from Dallas to Las Vegas.
Her goat, of course, was Wilson.
It was seemingly a perfect match, as everyone immediately remembered a preseason game between the Wings and Aces in South Bend, where Wilson was seen talking to Smith, mentoring her mid-game.
"A has been in my ear since I was on Dallas," Smith told Ari Chambers during the WNBA Finals media day. "Everyone seen that viral clip. That just shows the type of person she is, the type of character she has. Being here in Vegas, it's that times 10. She's always pouring into me, she's always encouraging me."
Smith went from averaging 6.7 points and 4.9 rebounds per game in Dallas, to scoring 8.2 points and grabbing 5.3 rebounds per game in Las Vegas. Not a big change, but it was more than the uptick on the stat sheet. It was her presence that helped take pressure off Wilson in the paint and created space in Hammon's system.
"That's my twin," Wilson said on July 16, about Smith. "It's just been tons of fun playing alongside of her.
"And once she really gets into our system and moving and grooving and understanding that we want her to shoot the basketball, she's getting the best look on the court, the best is yet to come for Lyss."
Nothing better than a championship, right?
THE ROOK
Her grin was as big as everyone else's, deservedly so. And though her minutes dwindled in the postseason, rookie Nye couldn't help but smile ear-to-ear when Wilson handed her the WNBA trophy while the stars were being interviewed on TV.
Nye played in just six playoff games, excluding Friday's final contest in Phoenix. She didn't score one point in the playoffs.
And after averaging 5.3 points on 41.4% shooting in her first 22 games as a professional, her production diminished to a mere 2.4 points on 25% shooting.
"I know I've been in my head ... and my confidence probably isn't as high as it was, but my coaches and my teammates, they have been encouraging me to just continue to shoot the ball and do what I do best, do what I work on every single day," Nye said on Aug. 13, before the Aces hosted New York.
The former Alabama sharpshooter said Loyd stayed in her ear, providing confidence and lending support when she sensed the rookie was reaching mental lows.
Hammon never gave up on Nye, knowing what she meant, even if it was no longer scoring with her deadly 3-point shot that went silent. When she'd get in the game, Nye was a defensive menace, or someone who racked up the hustle stats, if that was such a thing.
After every game, Las Vegas' coaches would get a report that told them how many miles per hour and how many miles each player ran, percentages of fast and slot movements.
"Nye's always at the top," Hammon said on Sept. 9. "She burns through the calories when she's out on the court. She's moving.
"One of the greatest skill sets is the skill set to go hard every possession, offensively and defensively. She possesses that skill set. She's competitive on every possession."
Which might have been why Wilson aptly addressed her as "Roll Tide" throughout the season.
MAMA CHEY
When Parker-Tyus stepped on the court for the first time this season, on Sept. 9, the announced crowd of 15,640 made sure she felt the love. It was her season debut after being on maternity leave. Parker-Tyus had her second child just a couple of months earlier, but made good on her vow to join the team by the end of the season and make a difference.
Parker-Tyus scored eight points in both of her regular-season games, on Sept. 9 and 11, and averaged 2.0 points and 1.0 rebound per game in 6.1 minutes during the postseason.
Though it was only eight games, what the 33-year-old veteran provided was motivation and inspiration for a group of women who, at one point, needed to know they could overcome adversity.
"This woman had a whole human in her a couple months ago," Hammon said the night of Parker-Tyus' debut. "It's been remarkable to watch her work, but also just her presence and her joy coming back and working.
So with all due respect to the returners - Wilson, Gray, Young, Kierstan Bell, Megan Gustafson and Kiah Stokes - who helped build the core of a dynastic organization with a lot of life left for years to come, the 2025 championship wouldn't have been possible without the five new faces that helped the Aces form a full house.
"I love being their coach," an emotional Hammon said after the game. "I love being their coach. I love being their friend. I love being a phone call for them. I love pushing them, probably sometimes to their disliking a little bit. But I'm invested in their greatness and getting that out of them every day. I know I've shared tears with all of them along this journey. Especially this year.
"This one hits different, because it was different."
And the newcomers had just as much to do with it.