The playoff picture is coming into view for the Aces with 12 games left in the WNBA regular season. No one knows that better than reigning MVP A\u2019ja Wilson.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m looking at (the standings) every single day because it could change in a blink of an eye,\u201d Wilson said after her team\u2019s win over the Golden State Valkyries on Aug. <\/a>6<\/a>. \u201cWe\u2019re not going to be satisfied because we\u2019re just winning a couple games. We\u2019ve got to start stacking wins and playing the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n The Aces (18-14) have done just that.<\/p>\n They\u2019ve won six of their last seven games, including four straight, to move from seventh in the standings to fifth. Wilson has been key to that run, averaging 29.3 points, 13 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.3 steals per game since Aug. 3. She became the first player in WNBA history to have at least 30 points and 20 rebounds in a game in the Aces\u2019 win over the last-place Connecticut Sun on <\/a>Sunday<\/a>.<\/p>\n The team\u2019s improvement will be put under the microscope, however, when it hosts the reigning WNBA champion New York Liberty at Michelob Ultra Arena on Wednesday.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re in a good spot,\u201d coach Becky Hammon said. \u201cWe should be feeling pretty confident again. This will be another great test for us on Wednesday. In order to be in these conversations with the best teams, you\u2019ve got to beat the best teams.\u201d<\/p>\n Not messing with the basketball gods<\/p>\n Hammon said at this point her staff isn\u2019t mapping out playoff scenarios or pulling for certain outcomes in other games.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re looking, but we have bigger fish to fry right now than that,\u201d Hammon said. \u201cWe need to just win games. \u2026 This is not an organization that micromanages.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s not always the case. Hammon said she\u2019s seen teams try to finesse their way into a certain playoff position before.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve never been one to mess with the basketball gods,\u2019\u201d Hammon said. \u201cGo out there and compete, and if you\u2019re the best team, the basketball gods won. If you\u2019re not, you\u2019re not. But I\u2019ve never been one to manipulate that. \u2026 I hate getting into the game of, \u2018Oh, we need this team to lose, or this team to win.\u2019 Handle your business, and you are where you are.\u201d<\/p>\n Hammon did acknowledge she doesn\u2019t want her team sitting in seventh or eighth place at the end of the regular season. That would mean having to face the WNBA-leading Minnesota Lynx (27-5) or Liberty (20-11) in the first round of the playoffs.<\/p>\n The Aces were the No. 4 seed last postseason. They swept the No. 5 Seattle Storm in the first round of the playoffs but were eliminated in four games by No. 1 New York.<\/p>\n Some critics have said this year the Aces simply don\u2019t have the roster to compete with teams like the Liberty. Hammon disagrees.<\/p>\n \u201cI definitely think there can be matchup problems, some teams just don\u2019t match up (well). I don\u2019t feel like that with this team,\u201d Hammon said of the Liberty. \u201cI think they\u2019ve been the better team the last year and a half.\u201d<\/p>\n Championship habits<\/p>\n The Aces still could get additional help. Veteran forward Cheyenne Parker-Tyus reported to the team\u2019s headquarters in Henderson on Tuesday.<\/p>\n Parker-Tyus, an All-Star in 2023, has been on maternity leave after welcoming her son in July<\/a>.<\/p>\n Forward NaLyssa Smith believes the Aces\u2019 championship pedigree is also shining through late in the year. Smith said she and reserve guard Dana Evans talked about the difference in the way the team practiced Tuesday compared to other organizations they\u2019ve been with.<\/p>\n \u201cThe attention to detail (is impressive). \u2026 We\u2019re gonna do stuff until you get it right. A lot of programs just move on when people don\u2019t understand. Here, they make sure every single person understands,\u201d Smith said. \u201cI feel like it\u2019s also just a family environment. There\u2019s no animosity with anyone. Everybody just has that love for each other, and that\u2019s the biggest way to build a championship team.\u201d<\/p>\n The Aces even have an accountability board, Smith said. Players write down what they\u2019re going to bring to the table before every game.<\/p>\n Guard Jackie Young also said the Aces\u2019 \u201cattention to detail\u201d has improved after Hammon forced the team to take a larger role in defensive game planning, an effort that\u2019s been led by Wilson<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s just had us a little bit more locked in,\u201d Young said. \u201cIt\u2019s been a kind of up and down season for us. But the vibes are good. Everybody\u2019s coming in with a lot of energy, excitement and is just ready to play. And I think it\u2019s been showing.\u201d<\/p>\n Contact Callie Fin at cfin@reviewjournal.com.<\/a> Follow @CallieJLaw<\/a> on X.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The playoff picture is coming into view for the Aces with 12 games left in the WNBA regular…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65672,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-65671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}