Aces emphasize playing better defense down the stretch of the WNBA season

The Las Vegas Aces lost the right to a relaxing, carefree All-Star break, at least if they heeded their coach’s words.

In their final game of the unofficial first half of the WNBA season, the Aces blew a nine-point lead with eight minutes to play to lose 100-99 at the Washington Mystics on July 22. Coach Becky Hammon fumed over the collapse, brushing off suggestions that controversial officiating played a role by saying the defeat was “on us.”

“We’re not where we want to be, obviously,” Hammon said in her postgame news conference. “Until we start playing defense, we’re not a serious team. We’re just not.”

Hammon challenged her players to embrace “the value of the defensive end” before they return to the floor for a pair of home games this week. The coach has lamented her team’s defensive effort dating all the way back to training camp, but it may really be sinking in now. 

“I think we can all take a beat,” reserve forward Cheyenne Parker-Tyus said. “We have a nice little break, so take this All-Star break to lock in, watch some film and see how we can be better as a team on defense.”

Hammon is a master at motivating her players and getting the best out of her teams, so it’s foolish to question her message, but the Aces appear to be in a better spot than she depicts. They were 18-8 at the All-Star break for the third-best record in the league.

The Minnesota Lynx (22-6) lapped the competition as the best team in the regular season so far, but the Aces swept three games with the second-place Golden State Valkyries (19-8).

Last season, the Aces infamously bottomed out to 14-14 with a franchise-record 53-point loss at home to the Lynx on August 2. That Vegas team, of course, went on to win its third WNBA Championship in four years.

“Last year, we lost a lot of games that I felt like we could have won,” Hammon said. “This year, I feel like we’ve been winning some games that have covered some warts. It’s my job to keep it real with them and understand that sometimes it’s harder to learn these lessons through winning, but the lessons are still there to be learned.”

All of those lessons right now are on defense. The Aces remain second in the league—behind the Indiana Fever—with a 113.2 offensive rating. But they’re eighth, ahead of only teams with losing records, with a 107.4 defensive rating.

Superstar Most Valuable Player frontrunner A’ja Wilson is the only player on the team who grades out as an above average defender by advanced metrics. She’s averaging a career-high 2.4 blocks per game and is regularly cleaning up sloppy perimeter defense as a rim protector, but she needs more help.

“There are times especially in basketball when you have to put your head down and do the dirty work, especially on the defensive end,” Hammon said. “That’s where you really build your character, not when it’s easy and fun. You build it when it’s tough and it doesn’t feel good and it’s uncomfortable.”

Many similar problems plagued last year’s slide, but clearly the Aces solved the puzzle, and there’s no doubt they’re capable of doing that again.

Reserve guard Dana Evans proved part of the solution in 2025 by coming in for high-intensity defensive spurts, and she’s just returned to the floor this season for her first three games after suffering a leg injury. Forward NaLyssa Smith, who starts alongside Wilson, caught fire as a defender for a large part of the playoff run.

Las Vegas’ defense needs work, but it might finally be committed to the repair.

“Pressure is a privilege,” forward Brianna Turner said. “We have a lot of opportunities coming up so we have to look ahead and fix what we can moving forward.”