History can teach us a lot. If you look at the WNBA’s postseason from the past, teams that go ahead 1-0 in a best-of-five series win 77% of the time. The odds are only bumped up when 1-0 turns into 2-0. If the past is any lesson, no W team has ever returned from a 2-0 deficit, and Becky Hammon is afraid the Las Vegas Aces’ three-peat dream won’t be realized. The New York Liberty have taken Game 2 of the semifinals with their home-court advantage, and the Aces’ head coach is livid.

Sitting down with the media in a post-game conference, Hammon had much to say about her team not being focused enough on the game. Lacking what she calls ‘the edge’ all season long, the Hall of Famer could not believe the one thing Las Vegas gave up on yesterday. “The layups? The layups are just backbreaking, and that’s us,” she told a reporter. “I don’t know how you’re gonna beat a team when you give them 16 layups. That’s 32 points, right off the top.”

Throughout most of the game, Hammon could be found with a perpetual frown on her face. During one particular time-out, she even ripped into Kelsey Plum, who seemed to be having a hard time on the court. “I’m not mad at the officials, I’m not mad at the New York Liberty, I’m mad at us; because the amount of layups we’re giving up? It’s been a thing in the first game, it’s been a thing in the second game, and if it’s gonna be a thing in the third, we’re not gonna win,” the coach continued.

Hammon believes that the Aces are not playing at “a high enough level” if they’re serious about the Finals trophy this year. In 2023, Las Vegas won the championship on the road at Barclays Center, and the Liberty will not forgive and forget so easily. “Give them credit, they’re doing what they need to do to win basketball games. But we’re not doing what we need to do to win basketball games, not at a high enough level,” Hammon believes.

The Liberty are hungry for the franchise’s first Championship and they’re not going to stop at anything, not even last year’s champions. Especially not because of last year’s champions. And even Hammon believes that they’re the best in the league right now.

Putting Liberty on a pedestal, Becky Hammon believes it’s “Aces vs. Aces” in the semifinals

All season long, it’s been the A’ja Wilson show for the ‘Sin City’ franchise. The 3x MVP redefined what it is to be a basketball player in the W, but in celebrating her, we might have forgotten some other stars. In New York, there is last year’s MVP Breanna Stewart and an almost contender for 2020 Rookie of the Year Sabrina Ionescu. Becky Hammon knows what the Aces are up against this year.

“They [points lost to layups] are too hurtful, too hard to recover when you’re playing the best team in the league,” the Aces coach asserts. “And they are the best team. Let there be no doubt.” Having been at the forefront of the league almost all year long, the No. 1 seed in the playoffs are finally taking revenge on the fourth seed.

“It was Aces vs. Aces tonight, we were beating ourselves,” said Hammon. Now if they don’t win game 3, it’s goodbye to the championship for Las Vegas. While they have proven that they can do what no team has ever done before in the WNBA, will New York prove too overwhelming? Or can the Becky Hammon-led team leave ‘distractions’ behind and make magic on the court again? Only time will tell.