The Las Vegas Aces didn’t lose their fourth game of the 2023 regular season until Aug. 19. At that point, they had 28 wins.
Nine games into 2024, they have the same loss total, and that fourth defeat was compounded by an ejection to coach Becky Hammon. The two-time defending champs were already without starting guards Chelsea Gray and Jackie Young in Los Angeles, and then lost Hammon to an ejection in the fourth quarter.
It is the first ejection of a coach in the WNBA this season.
Hammon earned her first technical for protesting a no-call on A’ja Wilson in the third quarter. She continued to get in the ears of the referees as the game wore on and received a second technical for leaving the coaches’ box. Hammon said she was trying to tell her team to blitz on defense but crossed the halfcourt line, thus getting an early exit.
The Aces were whistled for eight fewer fouls than the Sparks, but both teams commented on the physical nature of the game and a number of fouls that went uncalled.
“We got beat up on the glass a little bit, we got beat up in general,” Hammon said. “Play on. That’s how it goes in this league.”
Las Vegas hasn’t come close to approximating its world-beating start from a year go. With a healthy Gray and Candace Parker, the Aces raced out to a 19-2…
