Life came fast for the Las Vegas Aces after recording the biggest victory in franchise history on Saturday, and hit twice as hard.
On Sunday, the Aces could not build off of the momentum from their previous win, coming back down to Earth with a thud by way of a 109-75 stomping at the hands of the Indiana Fever.
“I thought we were lousy from the jump,” admitted Aces head coach Becky Hammon. “A lot of it is effort, and maybe we just didn’t have the juice today. The juice necessary to defend a team like that because, out of the gate, it was pretty ugly.”
Triple whammy
After a game against Phoenix where the Aces looked like they could not miss from deep, they returned to find the well had run dry.
The Aces fell flat in the three-point department, going 4-for-15 for the entire game, including a dismal 1-for-7 in the first half. The only Ace to score more than two triples was the returning Dana Evans. For context, Sophie Cunningham finished with more three-point shots than the Aces combined, going 5-for-6 on top of the Fever’s 48.4 percent three-point shooting to put the dagger to the defending champs again.
“I feel like they broke us down one-on-one so it collapsed the defense,” said Evans about the Aces’ struggles on the perimeter.
“It made us help and made us overhelp, and sometimes they were just getting the one more or the extra pass and just making catch-and-shoot threes. That’s a lovely thing to do, just catch and shoot threes. I feel like if we can clamp down on our one-on-one defense better, then we can eliminate a lot of those.”
Knees weak, arms are heavy
Similar to the previous game against the Fever, the Aces looked like they had no energy remaining as the second half rolled around.
With three games played in four days and the All-Star break in sight, the Aces had nothing left to power the jets. By the time the fourth quarter rolled around, the Aces had stopped driving to the basket and lost intensity on both ends of the court. It lead to only 11 points being scored in the final ten minutes for the Aces, turning a close game into another blowout at the hands of the Fever.
“We need some rest,” said Hammon after the recent schedule. “Jackie’s under the weather. We need to get healthy. Three in four, and the third game being against what I would say probably the fastest team in the league is going to put a lot of pressure on your defense.”
Vegas Fever?
Something about Las Vegas has quickly turned into an environment where the Fever thrive.
In another dominant outing, Kelsey Mitchell dominated with a game-high 27 points. Aliyah Boston recorded a double-double with 19 points and 11 rebounds, while Caitlin Clark dropped 12 points, seven rebounds and six assists to become the fastest WNBA player ever with 600 assists. With only A’ja Wilson (20 points) and Jackie Young (15) hitting double digits, the Aces simply lacked the firepower to respond.
“I think it was just a lack of communication on the defensive end,” Wilson attributed the struggles to against the Fever’s top players. “We kind of had some gaps where we probably thought one thing, two people thought one thing, the other three probably thought another, and, obviously, you can’t have that. When you lack communication, you kind of lose sight of the shooters. You lose sight of what’s going on in front of you.”