LAS VEGAS — Becky Hammon, holding court in a semicircle of reporters at Michelob Ultra Arena on Saturday, paused at the follow-up question. She tilted her head slowly to the right. Then slowly to the left.
She mulled over exactly what she should say. Has her team handled success well throughout the playoffs thus far?
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Once more to the right.
“OK,” Hammon repeated twice. The fourth-year head coach will often interject or circle back with additional thoughts, even when another question is already lobbed in her direction.
She left this one alone.
Hammon already gave enough away when she said she felt the Las Vegas Aces needed to handle their Game 1 success well. She shouldn’t be able to tell if the Aces had won or lost that first game in the short turnaround to Game 2 of the best-of-seven series.
“The mindset is the mindset, and that’s what I want to see from us,” Hammon said after a light practice on Saturday that resembled more of a shooting session. “I want to see a mature approach, a veteran approach, a veteran mindset of, you know, some success that we had in the first game carry over emotionally and mentally into the second game.”
The mindset in Las Vegas is a championship-winning one, and the No. 2 Aces delivered it on Sunday. They successfully defended home court, pulling two wins away from a third title in four years with a 91-78 win over the Phoenix Mercury.
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But did they handle that success between games?
“Well, we worked our way into it,” Hammon said afterward.
The first quarter proved a continuation of the first game, a back-and-forth battle after the Aces spotted the Mercury the first seven points. In the second quarter, the Aces locked in defensively and began to click. A’ja Wilson scored 13 in the second, more than the Mercury collectively in a 22-10 frame for Las Vegas.
The third quarter belonged to Jackie Young and Jackie Young only. The shooting guard told Hammon in Game 1 she didn’t have the legs and was shooting “darts.” Young attended practice on Saturday in street clothes, casually hanging out amid the jokes of teammates.
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She received treatment throughout the day, and Hammon asked her how she felt. Young told her she’d have her legs for Sunday’s noon local tip.
“And that was pretty much it,” Hammon said.
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Young played all 10 minutes and scored 21 points in the third quarter. It is a record for a single quarter in the WNBA Finals. She was 2 of 4 from 3-point range and unstoppable from the paint.
“My teammates were giving me the ball,” Young said. “I was just trying to make the right read, be aggressive and not turn the ball over.”
The 76-61 lead after three quarters was too much, even for the comeback kids from Phoenix. Their big three couldn’t keep up with the Aces’ trio, and Alyssa Thomas, accumulating four fouls by the seven-minute mark of the third, limited their options. She did not foul out of a single game this season, and hadn’t accrued more than three in a playoff game.
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Thomas snapped the Aces’ 11-0 run in the second, but quickly hit the bench with three fouls toward the end of that period. While she was out, Wilson scored four, and the Aces went on a mini 6-2 run. A last-second shooting foul on Young, which officials reviewed to ensure it beat the clock, allowed the Aces a 46-37 lead at halftime.
Young finished with 32, a franchise record for scoring in a WNBA Finals game. In the rare stat collective questioned humorously by Hammon earlier in the day, she became the fifth player to finish a Finals game with at least 30 points, shooting 60%. Nykesha Sales, Seimone Augustus, Breanna Stewart and Sheryl Swoopes, who was in the house on Sunday, are the others.
Wilson scored 28, falling one bucket short of her and Young becoming the first duo to score 30 points each in a Finals game. And Chelsea Gray chipped in another double-double with 10 points and 10 assists, feeding her high-scoring duo on transition bombs and slick no-look bounce passes through defenders. Hammon praised the things she does that don’t make the stat sheet, like keeping the pace high and making her own reads and adjustments on the fly, even if it’s not what Hammon called.
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Those three are Olympic gold medalists, as is super sixth player Jewell Loyd (nine points). Mercury head coach Nate Tibbetts said pregame that they keep him up at night, and anticipated a more aggressive game from Wilson. That she sprinted off the court after warm-ups lent itself well to that assumption.
“They’ve been through all of this, right?” Tibbetts said. “And, yeah, I think those are the things that you overthink as a head coach, right? And you hope and believe that your team can match them.”
It wasn’t the case in Game 2. After reaching the Finals because of their defense, it’s listed on a milk carton somewhere in Vegas. The Mercury allowed 89 points in the first game and 91 in the second. It impacted their offense, and Thomas couldn’t facilitate as well or spray out to shooters. Their 3-point looks weren’t as good, and they fell close to a playoff low, hitting 17.9%.
Until the Game 1 Finals loss, the Mercury were undefeated in the playoffs when hitting at least seven threes. They went 14 of 36 on Friday and were a better-chosen timeout or basket away from a much different type of series.
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“Phoenix probably came in with the idea that they want to get one [here],” Hammon said on Sunday morning. “That is still sitting right in front of them and we need to understand that.”
As the trusted leader, Wilson reminded the group in the 43 hours between games that it’s not about having a lead in the series. The Finals come down to securing the ones you’re supposed to win, which begins with protecting home court. And, to Tibbetts’ point after the loss, Vegas did just that.
“We just have to play the game that’s in front of us,” Wilson said, echoing her head coach. “We don’t look at the series as just the numbers. We look at it as just, this is another opportunity for us to play basketball the right way, and we need to do it. And going into Phoenix, that’s the same mindset that we’re going to have.”
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Hammon didn’t skirt around that point. Posed a question about her team’s success winning five of six against the Mercury this season, Hammon interjected for the corrective reset.
“You said we’re 0-0 against Mercury?” Hammon asked. “I like that.”
