The Aces came out of their first practice following the WNBA\u2019s All-Star break with their sights set on a clean slate for the second half of the season.<\/p>\n
That was reflected in coach Becky Hammon\u2019s message to the team in Monday\u2019s closing huddle.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know we\u2019ve been trending in the right direction, but we still have to have effort,\u201d Hammon told her players. \u201cEverything we\u2019ve been wanting to accomplish is right there.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Aces, despite entering the season with championship hopes, are 11-11 with 22 games remaining. They already have the most losses by 10 or more points in Hammon\u2019s tenure, but she and the team\u2019s veterans are confident they can turn things around before the playoffs.<\/p>\n
Hammon said her optimism comes from what she saw from the Aces their last five games. They went 3-2 in that stretch, but three-time MVP A\u2019ja Wilson was hurt in the team\u2019s loss to the New York Liberty on July 8 and missed their loss to the Washington Mystics on July 10.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf (Wilson) doesn\u2019t get hurt, I like us in both those games at New York and D.C. So some of it\u2019s unfortunate,\u201d Hammon said. \u201cThe point is, we\u2019re getting better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Young, Wilson not at full strength<\/p>\n
The Aces begin the second half of the season by hosting the Atlanta Dream (13-9) on Tuesday. Guard Jackie Young is questionable for the game with a left hip injury.<\/p>\n
Both Young and Wilson, the team\u2019s All-Stars, did not practice Monday. Hammon said she told them to stay home to prepare for the upcoming \u201ctough stretch.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wilson is second in the WNBA in points (22.3) and rebounds (9.2) per game and first in blocks per game (2.4). Young is averaging 16.8 points per game, second-best on the team and 14th-best in the league.<\/p>\n
Both were limited participants in the All-Star Game. Wilson scored four points in 12 minutes, while Young only played 53 seconds.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unclear if Young will be available Tuesday or for the Aces\u2019 upcoming four-game road trip, which opens with a back-to-back against the Indiana Fever (12-11) on Thursday and the Minnesota Lynx (20-4) on Friday.<\/p>\n
Hammon said her rotations will be important during the team\u2019s busy stretch.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust bearing in mind the legs. Maybe shorter stints and just trying to recuperate as much energy as we can,\u201d Hammon said. \u201cBut you just take it one by one, quarter by quarter. If we do that, we should come back and be liking our results.\u201d<\/p>\n
Loyd, Gray will set tone<\/p>\n
Hammon said the team \u201cgoes as the guards go\u201d after the Aces\u2019 win over the Dallas Wings on July 16 simply because they outnumber Wilson.<\/p>\n
That means Hammon will lean on point guard Chelsea Gray and offseason addition Jewell Loyd to produce as they try to move up the standings. The Aces are currently eighth in a league where eight teams make the playoffs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to continue this trend of everybody improving. The best basketball is still in front of this team, both on the offensive end and the defensive end,\u201d Hammon said. \u201cEvery game is important for us. We\u2019re trying to still establish who we are and our identity. \u2026 So give me the try hard factor and the competitiveness and I don\u2019t think there\u2019s a team that we can\u2019t beat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gray and Loyd both seem up to the challenge and are relishing the refreshed energy surrounding the team.<\/p>\n
Loyd, who led the WNBA in scoring in 2023, worked on her skills with first-year Aces assistant Ty Ellis after Monday\u2019s practice. She said she feels like she\u2019s finding her fit with the team after averaging 11.2 points per game so far this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe really had a good practice today,\u201d Loyd said. \u201cI think some people kind of forget that it\u2019s a lot of new bodies on this team, so we\u2019re all trying to find our voice, but it\u2019s been really fun to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gray, the 2022 WNBA Finals MVP, said she feels rested and isn\u2019t experiencing any hints of the foot injury that plagued her last season. She said the Aces have adopted a mentality of \u201cnew life and new opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to string some wins together, but you want to be playing your best basketball in September, and that\u2019s what it\u2019s all about,\u201d said Gray, who is averaging 12.1 points per game. \u201cYou try to figure things out in May, June and little bit of July, and then start fine tuning some things. So hopefully we\u2019re trending in that direction.\u201d<\/p>\n
Contact Callie Fin at cfin@reviewjournal.com.<\/a> Follow @CallieJLaw<\/a> on X.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Aces came out of their first practice following the WNBA\u2019s All-Star break with their sights set on…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":82544,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[62,67,132,68,232],"class_list":{"0":"post-82543","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-united-states","10":"tag-unitedstates","11":"tag-us","12":"tag-wnba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}