Becky Hammon defends load management even if Aces have to ‘take the L’ vs. Liberty

NEW YORK — The Las Vegas Aces’ starting five was unrecognizable Sunday afternoon in Brooklyn.

Instead of A’ja Wilson, Chelsea Gray and Jackie Young taking the center circle for the tipoff, they sat at the end of the bench as Jewell Loyd, Dana Evans and Brianna Turner replaced them on the court. At first glance, it was a potentially curious decision considering the stage — a nationally televised ABC matchup against rival New York Liberty — and the importance of every game with regard to playoff seeding.

Aces coach Becky Hammon couldn’t care less about those factors. Her team rolled into town at the tail end of a five-game road trip and less than 24 hours after a loss to the top-ranked Minnesota Lynx. As a result, the Aces looked like a shell of themselves in Sunday’s 111-71 loss to the Liberty.

Load management has become an increasingly important topic as the WNBA adds games to its calendar, and Hammon isn’t shying away from it.

“The health and safety of players comes first,” Hammon said. “Wherever we end up, we end up, and we’ll play whatever hand is dealt to us. To me, this was just a bigger picture type (of) scenario, so you take the ‘L,’ understanding that it pays dividends on the back end.”

The last time Wilson, Gray and Young missed the same game was the 2024 regular-season finale against the Dallas Wings, which the Aces won handily 98-84.

The league’s new collective bargaining agreement, which was ratified after the WNBA released its 2026 regular-season schedule, states that the league will “make reasonable and good faith efforts”  to provide at least 20 hours between the scheduled start of a team’s first game of a back-to-back and the scheduled start of its second game. However, the WNBA follows a guideline, like the NBA, that gives teams a minimum of 22 hours between back-to-back games, and travel must be limited to no more than one time zone.

The Aces’ game against the Lynx tipped off Saturday at 1 p.m. (ET), and Sunday’s game in Brooklyn was a 12:30 p.m. start. The Lynx also played the second half of a back-to-back Sunday, but Minnesota’s home game against the Wings started at 3:30 p.m.

“Not going to put (players) in any kind of jeopardy to get hurt when we’ve been expending a lot of energy and traveling a lot of miles back and forth, crisscrossing the country,” Hammon said of the decision to rest three starters. “It is what it is. I know these are big matchups, and these are what people want to see, but you should ensure that it’s fair.”

The league’s schedule has steadily expanded in recent years, from 32 games in 2021 to 36 in 2022, and then 40 in 2023 and 2024. This season, like last season, includes 44 games in the regular season. In 2027, the schedule is set to grow again to 50 games.

“Obviously, we want to be able to play as many games as possible, win as many games as possible,” Liberty forward Jonquel Jones said. “But also with the schedule ramping up, I don’t know, maybe we need a little bit more time. We were in a similar position earlier, where we had a lot of games in a very short period of time. It’s really tough to gauge that. You want to play in front of the fans, you want people that pay for the tickets to be able to see you play, but you also want to be smart and make sure you’re resting your body and not putting yourself in a position where you can get injured.”

Jones said the Liberty players were “a little bit disappointed” that the Aces’ three leading scorers weren’t available Sunday as they were looking forward to the marquee matchup and seeing it as a test of New York’s standing in the league as the regular season winds down.

“Obviously, they have to do what’s right for their team,” Jones said. “They have to do what’s right for their bodies. But as competitors, we really wanted to match up against them.”

The Liberty took an immediate lead off a Sabrina Ionescu 3-pointer Sunday and never trailed.

With 3:48 left in the third quarter, New York was up 16 points and appeared in control, so Liberty coach Chris DeMarco subbed out all of his starters except Breanna Stewart. Minutes later, when the lead ballooned to 21, Stewart also took a seat on the bench. The Liberty reserves finished the game from there.

Marine Johannes took flight, leading the Liberty with a career-high 27 points off the bench while shooting 7 of 13 on 3-pointers. Jones added 15 points and eight rebounds, and Stewart finished with 14 points. Ionescu had five points on 2-of-10 shooting.

The entire Aces starting five combined for just 19 points. Their bench carried the load, led by Ta’Niya Latson’s 20 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists.

“This was a great opportunity for the bench to get some minutes and get some burn,” Latson said. “It’s going to give us a lot of experience, and hopefully when our name is called, we’re ready.”

After Sunday’s loss, the Aces (22-11) are third in the standings, four games behind the league-leading Lynx (26-7). If the season ended on Sunday, they would have a first-round face-off against the Liberty, who jumped to sixth with the win.