LAS VEGAS — The ink had barely dried on the printed box scores detailing a loss to the top-seeded Minnesota Lynx, but Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammon already had a smile on her face.  

With the defeat, the Lynx came out of the regular-season series between the pair of WNBA championship contenders with a 2-1 edge − each result determined by less than 10 points.

After the 92-87 loss on Aug. 15, none of that was cause for concern for Hammon.  

“I thought we gained some good information going forward,” she told reporters

As NaLyssa Smith sat next to Hammon at the podium, the Aces center couldn’t help but laugh as her coach’s grin grew wider. 

“I got my wheels already thinking here,” Hammon added. “If we have to matchup with them again, we’ll do some things differently.”  

That glee in finding the answer is what makes the Aces so interesting entering the playoffs. Las Vegas has a postseason pedigree that’s been developed through winning three WNBA titles in four years. Hammon and her crew are always adjusting. That constant tinkering is why analysts assert the playoff Aces are an entirely different team, one that could − as the No. 3-seed again − go back-to-back again. 

“I know we’ll be prepared. We’ll be ready,” Hammon told USA TODAY after one of those practices. “We have competitors at the end of the day. So, in the draws, I don’t think anybody wants us.”  

Becky Hammon hold plays for the postseason

During the second week of the FIBA break, Hammon and her players were hard at work on defense, drilling rebounding and honing in on pickup points.  They played pickup to improve their conditioning and build chemistry. They worked to acclimate Kalani Brown, the team’s emergency pickup after Smith went out for the season with a knee injury.  

But potentially most importantly, they worked on schematic things Hammon has never asked them to do in a game. Opponents can never be too sure what Hammon might do in the postseason. Neither can her players.  

“We definitely hold things. Even sometimes adjustments. Like I said, we’re always information gathering. 
And we’re information gathering for the postseason, not so that we can win every regular-season game,” Hammon told USA TODAY.  

That much was on display after Hammon and the Aces opened their 2025 WNBA Finals series with the Phoenix Mercury by surprising Nate Tibbetts and his team with a zone defense in Game 1 that set the tone for the Aces to win the championship in a sweep.  

Hammon and her clipboard are liable to make changes like that on either side of the ball. It’s a process that starts as soon as preparation for the season begins.  

“In training camp, she’ll put a play in, but then she won’t use it until the end of the season,” Aces forward Kierstan Bell told USA TODAY. “There’s a lot of plays that she hasn’t gone over yet, a lot of defenses that she hasn’t gone over yet. You don’t want nobody stealing your playbooks early on. Sometimes you just gotta keep it in the boat. And run it at the right time.”  

Hammon is constantly quizzing her players to ensure they’re keeping every play or scheme in their mind, even if it’s one they’re not using.  

“She understands that you never want to see a play for the first time in a crucial situation − mind you, that also will happen, because we do have a veteran team,” guard Jewell Loyd told USA TODAY with a laugh. 

With the game on the line, Hammon can pivot because she has a trust with her players forged from experience. 

“We have a group that’s been together. Jack(ie Young) Chelsea (Gray), A’ja (Wilson), Jewell, Dana (Evans), they all have a really good grasp on a lot of our junk defense and the kind of things that we’re trying to do,” Hammon said.  

For Evans, there’s an extra layer of confidence in Hammon, even if things come down to the wire in the huddle.   

“One thing about Becky; if you tell her, ‘Can you please draw that again? I missed that,’ She will draw it as many times as you need. She’s very patient with us,” Evans told USA TODAY. “That’s why we’re not scared to (adjust).”  

As Evans described Hammon as a “different animal” in the postseason, the same could be said for Aces players. 

Aces players ‘flip a switch’ in the playoffs

There’s a saying many coaches lean on when they’re trying to motivate their team to treat every moment of on-court performance like the final second of a tied game: “You can’t flip a switch!”  

That adage doesn’t apply to the Aces. 

“These guys can. They are definitely capable of flipping a switch, which most coaches hate,” Hammon said.  

That’s why fans have come to expect an annual championship parade regardless of how bad the Aces look in the regular season. 

The Aces looked terrible and still won it all after taking a pivotal 53-point loss to the Lynx last year. This time around, Las Vegas didn’t have to close the regular season on a historic 16-game win streak to secure a desirable postseason seed. But that doesn’t mean the team won’t need more from its players when the postseason begins.  

“When you’re trying to have a championship run, you have to kind of elevate your game. You have to get it done. You have to pay attention to the details,” Loyd said.  

Evans, a hero in the playoffs for the Aces last year, believes the Aces can rise to the occassion again.  

“I feel like everybody just turns it up a notch and we all just really just lock in. During the season, you have to distractions, you’ve got people coming to see you, you’ve got people in and out,” Evans said. “But we know how important this is. It’s like tunnel vision. Everybody is really locked into what we need to do.”  

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: The Aces have a playoff switch. Becky Hammon says they can flip it.

Reporting by Callie Fin, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect