Becky Hammon Dismisses Comparisons to Aces Championship Squads

With only three regular-season contests remaining, Las Vegas controls its own destiny. Locked in a three-way tie for second place, the Aces can clinch the No. 2 seed by winning out, no help required.

Seeding aside, Las Vegas has secured a playoff berth for the seventh consecutive season. And given their torrid play of late, it's hard to block out visions of yet another championship run.

The Aces are not far removed from the ultimate glory. After hoisting their first championship trophy in 2022, Las Vegas raised the bar even higher the following year, setting an WNBA record with 34 regular-season wins before capturing the title for a second consecutive season.

Yet head coach Becky Hammon isn't super keen on likening this 2025 squad to the two that raised banners not long ago.

"It's really hard to compare them," Hammon maintained, speaking with the media following Thursday night's win. "Those teams were special and really set the standard. They set the standard that Aces basketball is about."

Of course, Hammon is well-versed on that standard. The Hall of Fame coach was instrumental in leading the Aces to their first title, taking the league by storm with a dominant offensive system.

After eight seasons as an assistant coach with the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA, Hammon replaced Bill Laimbeer as head coach in Las Vegas. She found success instantaneously, becoming the first rookie head coach in league history to win a championship. Setting a WNBA record in single-season wins the following year only further cemented her legacy.

In her first three seasons at the helm, the Aces went 87-29, good for a winning percentage of .750%. That's why, even with a revamped coaching staff underneath Hammon, it came as such a surprise when Las Vegas struggled to find its footing in 2025.

Reeling from an offseason trade that sent longtime Aces guard Kelsey Plum to the Los Angeles Sparks, a new-look Las Vegas backcourt now featuring Jewell Lloyd didn't mesh from the jump.

The Aces see-sawed for much of July, dipping two games under .500 at their lowest. The malaise bled into August, punctuated by a crushing 111-58 loss against the Lynx that left them at 14-14 on August 2.

For much of July, the Aces see-sawed around .500. The malaise even extended into August, when a demoralizing 111-58 loss at the hands of the Lynx left Las Vegas at 14-14 on August 2.

"There were lots of moments where we could've folded," veteran guard Chelsea Gray admitted. "We never stopped believing in one another. From top to bottom, we knew we were gonna turn it around."

They've done exactly that, putting together one of the most impressive turnarounds in WNBA history. Minnesota has locked up the No. 1 seed, but there's a case to be made that Las Vegas is the most dangerous squad entering the postseason.

2025 Aces Are Carving Out Own Identity

While there are plenty of leftovers from the 2022 and 2023 Aces championship squads, this year's path to a potential title is decidedly different.

"It's hard to compare them, A, because I love those teams, but also every team has kinda taken its own identity," Hammon continued. "I don't want to compare them, I want them to be their own team."

To that point, this year's Aces squad has deviated from the formula that brought home back-to-back championships.

Adopting Hammon's pace-and-space style, offense was at the forefront of Las Vegas' title runs. From 2022 to 2023, the Aces paced the WNBA with 91.7 PPG and a 36.7 3P%. By no means were they a sieve defensively -- Las Vegas recorded the second-most blocks and ranked fifth in scoring defense during that same span -- but offense was clearly their calling card.

This season, Hammon is harping more on the defensive end than ever before.

"This team has been able to win a lot with its defense," Hammon noted. "Now teams are running the spread action where everybody can shoot, but this team is able to get stops, and I think that's different."

The defensive metrics on the year don't exactly impress, likely a product of Las Vegas' extended struggles in the first half. Their elite rim protection hasn't wavered, buoyed by a league-leading 2.2 blocks per game from A'ja Wilson, but the Aces rank ninth in defensive rating and eighth in scoring defense.

Still, the defensive improvement is visible throughout the winning streak, with Las Vegas boasting the fourth-best defensive rating since August 3.

A similar leap has occurred on the other end of the floor, with the Aces sporting the number-one offense and second-best three-point efficiency in that span. It was a much different tale before the winning streak, however.

Prior to the Aces' 13-game rampage, Las Vegas had the fifth-worst offense and third-lowest 3P% in the WNBA, a far cry from the deadly attack that had become a staple under Hammon.

The offense has found its groove of late, but Hammon continues to put extreme emphasis on the defensive end.

But perhaps the most stark difference is the mere fact that this year's squad has endured great hardship.

On June 17, Las Vegas fell below .500 for the first time in Hammon's four-year Aces tenure, a testament to their sheer dominance under the Hall of Fame coach. With the struggles reaching the All-Star break, Las Vegas faced the unfamiliar challenge of needing to dig themselves out of a rut.

"We're special because we really had to learn how to believe in one another. We had to learn how to be in the trenches and see things not work," Wilson explained. "In the beginning with the championship teams, we were just kinda of going with the flow. But this go-around, we kind of already set the standard, and when you don't uphold that standard, it hurts. It breaks you a little bit."

Fueled by MVP-caliber play from Wilson, the Aces look as dominant as they've ever been. And this time around, they're battle-hardened by the shock of early-season turmoil.

"I always say every single year, you wanna be playing your best basketball August, September," Gray relayed. "That's what you're seeing right now, and I still think there's another level that we can go to on both ends of the floor."

The 2025 Aces have a clear identity, one marked by overwhelming resilience in the face of adversity. It will serve them well come postseason.