For the second season in a row, the Las Vegas Aces are 5-5 through their first 10 games. And this time around, the questions about their slow start and ability to contend for a title feel much more serious. Not only from outside observers, but their own locker room.
Following a 27-point defeat to the expansion Golden State Valkyries earlier this month, veteran point guard Chelsea Gray said the team, which won back-to-back titles in 2022 and 2023, was “trying to figure it out in our locker room, in our meetings… It’s uncharted territory right now that we have not seen this side or played like this since we’ve been together and played under [coach] Becky [Hammon].”
Hammon, for her part, ripped her team for being “soft mentally and letting people punk us” after the loss to the Valkyries. “I told them effort has to come from your heart. The schemes, the discipline, the habits — that’s your head. Right now we not only have a heart issue, but it’s [becoming] a head issue.”
“I’m not going to coach effort,” Hammon continued. “It’s one thing I can’t deal with. You are in charge of your effort. … I’ve never been a coach to pull for mistakes, but I will pull for effort.”
