Amid Aces Locker Room Tension, Becky Hammon Reveals the Missing Piece That A’ja Wilson Isn’t Able to Perfect

“There’s moments today where it was like oh there we are and then it’s like nope back to standing,” said Becky Hammon after the game. Today’s 90-82 loss at the hands of the Liberty has sent the Aces into deep deliberation. It was only recently when the Aces team had broken their losing streak after a 103-99 win against Mercury. However today, A’ja Wilson and Co. looked disoriented and left Becky Hammon disheartened by their performance. Reflecting on the game, Hammon, alongside A’ja Wilson answers questions in the post-game interview.

The game was basically a re-match of last season’s finals Game 3 when Chelsea Gray sustained an injury and has been out since then. Although suggestions of Gray making a return after the upcoming Olympic break, nothing has been set in stone yet. Meanwhile, let’s hear from the coach how things are going to go ahead from here.

Becky Hammon indicates a missing element amidst the locker room troubles

“Let’s not see them 10 times a game and then not see it for the other minutes. So, I think right now there’s a lot of frustration obviously in the locker room and we’re having a tendency to go inward when things get hard,” Hammon said, via the postgame conference. She reflected on the inefficiency of the team and how it resulted in a loss.

She then further elaborated on the broken defense of 2x back-to-back champions against last year’s finals runner-up team, the New York Liberty. She said, “There’s no doubt we have a lot of work to do defensively and then we start playing that end of the floor and then I’ll talk to you guys about offense but until we start acting like we care you can say you care all the time. Show me you care.”

She then started dissecting what errors were in a play by the team while the opponents were posing a dominant offense. She said the Aces couldn’t even guard the opponent’s one-on-one offense with five players around. Simply put, the team didn’t play as a defensive unit in the game. Then again, Hammon pointed out the importance of the movement between the ball and the players. The flow of which was not seamless in the matchup.

The team was indeed disconnected from the ball and out of their usual dominant form, which cost them this loss at home. Meanwhile, Becky Hammon also acknowledged how Chelsea Gray’s presence benefits keeping the team glued together both on and off the court.

Hammon recounting Chelsea Gray’s impact

While enlisting the team’s weak spots, Becky Hammon also talked about how Chelsea Gray could save a sinking ship in terms of a transition from offensive to defensive, among other things. She said, “When you’re missing shots and you’re constantly in transition and you’re constantly just backpedaling, it gets hard and conversely, okay now we weren’t very efficient offensively, now our defensive efficiency starts to go down because there’s just like a Snowball Effect and that’s where Chelsea helps because she’s somebody who knows how to stop the bleeding when to stop the bleeding.”

Lately, the anticipation of Chelsea Gray’s return has been hovering around a bit more. However, it is nowhere in the coming days, but it is still around the corner. The Aces are currently holding a 6-6 record after 12 games they have played into the season. Moreover, their home record is going at a rate of 3-4, which too is not looking good.

As a result, her return could really fix up the broken ends for the team and lead it to a winning score this season.

For more such updates, tune into our platform and to follow what Shaq’s ex-agent, Leonard Armato, has to say about the Reese-Clark rivalry and more, watch this video: