LAS VEGAS — The Aces players were surprised. They wondered why coach Becky Hammon wasn’t even more angry.
It’s not that Hammon wasn’t irritated with Tuesday’s 98-88 loss at home to the Phoenix Mercury — a 13.5-point underdog. She was. But she saw it all coming.
“It doesn’t work that you flip on a switch, after being apart for six to seven months, and you’re that same team you were last October,” Hammon told ESPN, referring to the peak the Aces reached when they won their second consecutive WNBA championship in fall 2023.
“We start over understanding we’ve got a pretty good foundation, but then have to settle into that foundation. Right now, what I’m seeing is seven or eight different identities throughout the course of the game. We have to shore up who we are on both ends.”
Before Tuesday’s loss, the Aces again looked like the league’s top team, and might be the toughest challenge yet when No. 1 draft pick Caitlin Clark and the winless Indiana Fever come to town Saturday. But Las Vegas — which lost just twice at home last…
