Kelsey Plum spent much of this past Wednesday's Lynx-Aces game complaining to and about the refs. She brought up uneven officiating in a halftime sideline interview: The Lynx “move on all their screens.” But by the time the postgame press conference started, the Vegas guard had somewhat changed her tune. “She cooked me,” Plum said, trying to explain Minnesota guard Courtney Williams's 22-point performance that night. “She had it tonight, and when you get your ass kicked, you gotta give the other people credit.”
That's one reason not to read too much into that game, and why I felt uncomfortable using it to construct some broader point about the Las Vegas Aces' defense, which dominated last season but has so far disappointed in 2024. Sometimes other team will just shoot well. The Lynx finished 11-for-19 from behind the arc in their 98-87 win on Wednesday. Williams indeed cooked Plum, but as head coach Becky Hammon pointed out afterward, Williams almost exclusively takes the “long, off-the-dribble twos” teams can live with giving up. Minnesota punished every botched defensive rotation—the same thing they've done to 10 other teams. That probably says more about the Lynx than it does about the Aces.
Look at the ball movement from the Minnesota Lynx. pic.twitter.com/pu3RVUUbJX
— Steve Jones Jr. (@stevejones20) August 22, 2024
It also felt hasty to sound the alarm because the things the Aces need to start doing on defense are things they've done before. At their best, they apply pressure to the ball and blow up passing lanes. Under Hammon, Vegas's team defense has worked by being active. The fix doesn't require much imagination—we've all seen them do it. But Hammon sounded exasperated with her team after Wednesday's loss. “Until we get our defensive identity, and we stick to it, we’re going to continue to struggle,” she said postgame.
The Aces still hadn't quite stuck to it on Friday night, when they played the Lynx again in Minnesota, and lost, again. In an 87-74 defeat, they suffered the indignity of being personally outrebounded by Napheesa Collier, 18-17. Someone was playing Aces basketball in this little home-and-home series. It just wasn't the Aces.
Chemistry goes both ways. It powered the Aces to two titles in two seasons, but they're left a little more vulnerable when they can't depend as much on one pillar of the team. You can see in all these games some downstream effects of the injury Chelsea Gray suffered in Game 3 of the Finals last October. The star point guard didn't return to WNBA action until late June, after missing the first 12 games. Her shot isn't all the way back, and she's still moving slow. A limited Gray asks Plum and Jackie Young to do more as defenders and playmakers, and neither of them can handle it right now, especially as all three recover from playing in the Olympics.
In the meantime, the other Aces have left a lot of work to A'ja Wilson. She's always happy to do it: Right now, Wilson is on pace for one of the best scoring and rebounding seasons in WNBA history. But her MVP case, still as strong as anyone's, is no longer as simple as “best player on best team.” The Aces sit fifth in the standings right now, a pedestrian 18-11. (They went 34-6 last year.) The standings are as much a symptom of Vegas's slump as they are an explanation. It's hard to stay on top in this league. Is the Aces' defense looking worse? Sure, but guards in the WNBA are also getting better. See: Sabrina Ionescu, Chennedy Carter, Courtney Williams. A team that sets the league standard shouldn't be surprised when other players eventually meet it.
Some functional-looking Vegas defense showed up in bursts and flashes against the Chicago Sky on Sunday afternoon. They are, as Hammon put it, slowly getting to it. But the Aces had other problems. Wilson, bothered by the length of Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso all game, shot a shocking 8-of-28 from the floor. The fully realized version of the Aces didn't show up—until, with one second left, it did.
It's always fun to watch the Aces play basketball like a team. For a while there, no one did it better. Gray's inbounds pass sailed over the 6-foot-7 Cardoso and right into the hands of a gliding Wilson in the paint. Plum had already screened a couple taller Sky players out of the way. By the end, it was just the two-time MVP, alone at the rim. “We have enough to get the job done,” Wilson said after her game-winner. “It's just a matter of 'Do we want to get it done?'” The Aces were tired of giving other teams credit. This time, they saved some for themselves.
