A champion comes back cold
The WNBA restarts today after a break for the FIBA World Cup, and the defending champions pick things up in Seattle with four regular-season games left. Las Vegas sit at 27-13, two games behind Golden State and one clear of both Atlanta and Indiana. That is a narrow band of standings for a team that won three in a row before the league went dark.
Becky Hammon has spent the week managing a squad that came back in pieces. Four Aces played at the World Cup: Chelsea Gray and Jackie Young with the United States, Stephanie Talbot with Australia, Mai Yamamoto with Japan. A’ja Wilson, a four-time league MVP, stayed home on health grounds rather than joining the American roster.
“It’s a funky rhythm for everybody,” Hammon said in a video posted on the ESPN Las Vegas YouTube channel. “Everybody’s going to have to kind of just dive right in and hit the ground running.” She added that nobody outside the building feels sorry for a team with that many international call-ups.
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A schedule that should help
The closing run is kind on paper. Two games against Seattle, then one each against Los Angeles and Phoenix, and every one of those clubs has already been eliminated from postseason contention. Las Vegas won the only previous meeting with the Storm this season, 101-91 at home on June 8.
Seattle arrive at 8-32 and with a wrecked frontcourt. Ezi Magbegor tore an anterior cruciate ligament while playing for Australia at the World Cup and is finished for the year. Katie Lou Samuelson had arthroscopic surgery on her left knee during the break and will not play again this season either. Dominique Malonga and Awa Fam did come back with credit from the tournament, both averaging double figures for France and Spain.
What the Aces are really playing for
Seeding, and rhythm. A team returning from sixteen days apart with four national-team players rejoining the group needs reps more than it needs results, but the standings will not wait for that. One game covers three teams behind Las Vegas, and the difference between second and fourth seed can decide who they meet in the first round.
Sonia Raman’s first year in Seattle has been a long one. It ends with two shots at the champions.
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