By defeating the Atlanta Dream (92-87), in Georgia, the Las Vegas Aces continue their flawless start to the WNBA season with a fifth victory in as many games. Becky Hammon’s players thus have the best record in the WNBA, and are the only team still undefeated since the start of the year.
“It’s cool, obviously it’s important to be 5-0 up, but at the same time we know we still have a lot of progress to make and a lot of things to achieve” points out A’ja Wilson. “Yes, we get victories, but we put ourselves in situations that we can avoid. It’s good to get out of it, it’s good to see us win, but I don’t like that we put ourselves in these situations..
Friday night, Las Vegas thus limited Atlanta to 30 points at 30% shooting in the first half, to return to the locker room with a 15-point lead. Except that the defense of the defending champions then exploded, especially in the 4th quarter, when they still had a 16-point lead at the start of this last act.
Thus, the advantage of the Aces has completely melted to be reduced to two small points…
“First of all, I think they really put pressure on us defensively, and I don’t think we handled it exceptionally well, especially in the fourth quarter. We cannot play the ball timidly, we have to play physical » explained Becky Hammon. “But you know, like I said, let’s give them credit because they’ve had a lot of players who have played well. For a game where we only made 6 3-point shots (6/21), on the road, we are happy to come out with a victory..
Becky Hammon has however insisted on defense since the start of the season. The “problem” may be that Candace Parker’s teammates had wandered off so far. This success is therefore a first real test for the Las Vegas Aces, who had won their first four games by an average of 25 points…
After winning the WNBA title last year, the Las Vegas Aces are in any case perfectionists.
