The Las Vegas Aces may have lost against the New York Liberty, but Aces head coach Becky Hammon seems to have a bigger plan. With less than 24 hours between a matchup against the Minnesota Lynx and the Liberty game, Hammon prioritised resting her key players and absorbing the defeat. For journalist Annie Costabile, however, the decision raised a question about the WNBA’s scheduling as the league prepares for the postseason.
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“It was not exactly the prime time exciting matchup that I think is typically expected of a Liberty-Aces game,” Costabile said on the No Offseason podcast. “And that’s because the Aces were operating from a standpoint of load management… I don’t fault Becky Hammon at all for taking this approach. I think load management is, as I wrote, an increasingly hot-button topic as the league continues to expand its seasons. And as we see in the NBA, teams have to protect, or have the right to protect, their star players in this way.”
The Las Vegas Aces played the Minnesota Lynx in Minneapolis on Saturday with a strong lineup that featured A’ja Wilson, Chelsea Gray, and Jackie Young. However, it was not enough, and the game ended in a 98-87 defeat.
Less than 24 hours later, on Sunday in Brooklyn, the Aces had to face the New York Liberty without any of those three players suiting up. The result was a 111-71 blowout, a 40-point loss in a game that was supposed to be a marquee matchup for the WNBA’s official “Rivals Week.” And so the spectacle the league was advertising simply did not materialise.
Becky Hammon was entirely unapologetic about the decision.
“My players’ health is the most important,” she said after the game, per the San Francisco Chronicle. “You got to be healthy and fresh as much as possible, obviously, after going through a season. So the health and safety of players come first. Where we end up (in the standings), we end up. “
For Costabile, the broader point she is making is that a coach should not have to be in that position in the first place.
“A coach like Becky is taking it into her own hands and she has every right to do so when you’re talking about players like A’ja, Chelsea Gray, and Jackie Young… It points to the fact that the league could have been more strategic about planning back-to-back games like this in terms of the Lynx and the Liberty,” Costabile said.
The Aces have since played another game, this time against the Washington Mystics, with their rested stars back in the lineup. And it ended in a win.
Whatever the final standings say, Becky Hammon has made her priorities abundantly clear. The regular season is a means to an end.