Aces’ Becky Hammon breaks down climb to top of defensive rankings after beating Wings

The Las Vegas Aces finally solved their Dallas problem, and Becky Hammon used the win to take stock of how far her team’s defense has come after taking down the Wings, 99-84.

The victory carried extra weight. Dallas had owned the Aces this season, beating them 95-87 in May and following iy with a 96-66 blowout earlier this month. Las Vegas also entered the night looking to bounce back from an 87-76 loss to the New York Liberty earlier this week.

Hammon framed the progress as part of a longer build. “I’m a big process oriented people, process oriented coach and, you know, we’re still in process,” she said post-game.

Becky Hammon happy with the progress, but NOT yet satisfied #Aces #WNBA https://t.co/STT7RXno94 pic.twitter.com/P7J1EkmJP7

— ESPN 1100/100.9 FM (@ESPNLasVegas) June 26, 2026

She pointed to consistency as the thing she keeps chasing, noting that the Aces have shown they can be great in stretches and that her job is to pull that out of them for a full 40 minutes. She also stressed that she does not want the group peaking too early.

What she would not do was sugarcoat where it all began.

“Quite frankly, we started out pretty bad. Now we’ve strung a couple games throughout the New York game, but a couple games before that where we’ve strung some good defensive games together and we want to continue to kind of stack those kind of games,” Hammon said.

The numbers back her up. The Aces ranked near the bottom of the league in defensive rating early in the year and gave up at least 95 points in all three of their losses. That has started to change, and the recent stretch suggests the climb Hammon has been chasing is finally underway

The timing could not be sharper. Las Vegas is due to face the New York Liberty in the Commissioner’s Cup Championship on June 30 in Brooklyn, a rematch with the same team that handed the Aces their recent loss. Tightening up on defense now gives Hammon’s group a real shot at walking away with the in-season trophy.

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