Game 1 against the Fever was not a good look for Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammon. The Aces coach had made a bold statement after their Seattle Storm win. “You dropped two of the three games to them this year, but you haven’t seen them since late July. What excites you about that match-up?” a reporter had asked.

Becky Hammon answered with confidence, “That they haven’t seen the real Aces yet. Um, they caught us when we were at a bit in turmoil. Um, no, that they whooped us (in) one of those stretches. So, you know what? We’ll buckle in, hone in where we can, and take care of business.” They certainly couldn’t “take care of business” tonight as the Indiana Fever “whooped” them 89-73, again.

Hammon’s Aces stumbled as the Fever dominated throughout the game. In the postgame, she cooled the rhetoric, resetting to a measured mindset. She said via Scott Agness, “Our problem was on the defensive end, and then not moving the ball on the offensive end. We’ll have to talk about it (in the locker room).”

Nobody on that Aces squad could guard Kelsey Mitchell. She went off for 34 points, 3 assists, and 2 steals. This was the first time that a Fever player scored more than 30 points in a playoff game since the 2012 WNBA Finals, and that special performance was acknowledged by Becky Hammon.“She (Mitchell) made every single freaking shot it felt like,” She said after the game.“She had a hot night, and we let her get going.”

The Aces just couldn’t defend. At one point, you had Mitchell with the hot hand, or you had a completely open Odyssey Sims, who put up 17 points. The game was pretty much even until the halftime break, but the Aces let it slip in the third quarter, conceding 27 points. There was no way back from there. They have been beaten at home by the Indiana Fever for the first time since the franchise moved to Las Vegas in 2018. And the performance had an unwanted flashback to their worst 2025 days.

Becky Hammon’s Talk Needed After Fever Loss Echoes Minnesota Setback

This is not the first time Hammon has called out Vegas’ 8th-best defense. “The defense was atrocious. It was atrocious.” Hammon had said after the team suffered a 109-78 blowout at the hands of the Minnesota Lynx. The 31-point drubbing was Vegas’ worst since a 38-point beatdown by the Liberty on August 6, 2023. It was a low point for the Lynx in the 2025 season, and the loss to the Fever brought some memories back.

“The Aces trailed by 16 points this afternoon, their largest deficit in any game since their 53-point loss to the Lynx on Aug. 2,” Wrote ESPN journalist Alexa Phillippou

To make matters worse, the Aces were the favourites this time around. Lynx owned the moment then; now the Aces were the ones with firepower, and Michael Voepel underscored just how heavy this loss is with a shocking stat.“The @IndianaFever were 8.5-point underdogs going into today’s game at @LVAces. Their victory ties for the largest upset in @WNBA semis or Finals since 2017.” Voepel wrote.

Now you can look at this in one of two ways. The Aces could be back to their form from the first half of 2025. At one point, they were expected to miss out on the 2025 playoffs altogether, going 13-15 off their first 28 games. However, the Lynx game flipped the switch, and they went on an unprecedented 16-game run. We will only find out which Aces turn up in Game 2 as the 4-time MVP A’ja Wilson chases her 3rd title.