LAS VEGAS (AP) \u2014 Talent has never been a question regarding the Aces as they have built the WNBA\u2019s newest dynasty, but that alone doesn\u2019t explain their success.<\/p>\n
Las Vegas has won three of the past four titles by also showing a mental toughness to overcome adversity, some of it the Aces\u2019 own making and some foisted on them by events.<\/p>\n
And now the Aces find themselves in the familiar position of being one of the favorites to win the title, but face a number of challenges that could prevent them from making more history when the playoffs begin Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m always concerned about something,\u201d coach Becky Hammon said. \u201cYou\u2019re never comfortable. So I\u2019m still pushing. I\u2019m still demanding certain things to get done out there on the floor. Still encouraging, applauding certain things we\u2019ve done. But we always have areas where we can get better and want to be sharper. We\u2019re just not a finished product, nor do we want to be. We\u2019re still working our way there.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Aces, with a game left in the regular season, have clinched home-court advantage through the first round of the playoffs by securing at least the third seed. They would move up to the second seed with a victory at Phoenix on Thursday and a Golden State loss to Los Angeles, which also would get the Aces home court through at least two rounds.<\/p>\n
It would be easy to look at Las Vegas\u2019 success and think it has all come easy, especially with four-time MVP A\u2019ja Wilson leading the way.<\/p>\n
And that was largely true when the Aces captured their first championship in 2022. The Aces tied Chicago for the best record in the regular season and then went 8-2 in the playoffs and didn\u2019t face an elimination game.<\/p>\n
But their title the following year came after six-time All-Star point guard Chelsea Gray and post player Kiah Stokes suffered foot injuries in the WNBA Finals against New York. The Aces somehow survived those losses to beat the Liberty by a point to go back-to-back as well as avoid a winner-take-all Game 5.<\/p>\n
Their most difficult challenge came during last season\u2019s title run when the Aces didn\u2019t look anything like a championship team in losing at home by 53 points to Minnesota to fall to 14-14. They quickly regrouped and then won their final 16 regular-season games, but in the playoffs had to overcome Indiana in overtime of the deciding Game 5 to even make the Finals.<\/p>\n
And now the Aces are playing in the shadow of the Lynx, the No. 1 seed and substantial consensus favorites to win the championship. Las Vegas has the second-best odds on the betting boards, riding a six-game winning streak against opponents that did not qualify for the playoffs. The Aces\u2019 record this season against teams that make up the postseason field is a pedestrian 11-10.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we made some improvements on both ends of the floor,\u201d Gray said. \u201cI think there\u2019s moments where we can get better and get more consistent, but it\u2019s go time, so everybody\u2019s going to be locked in. We\u2019ve been locked in about it, but it goes up another level.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
See AP\u2019s full WNBA coverage here <\/p>\n
Mark Anderson, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS (AP) \u2014 Talent has never been a question regarding the Aces as they have built the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":907314,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-907313","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\/907313","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=907313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/907314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=907313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=907313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=907313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}