Down 2-0 to Valkyries in WNBA semifinals, defending champion Aces face elimination at home

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Becky Hammon is blunt and brutally honest.

Her Las Vegas Aces are on the brink of their offseason arriving earlier than hoped if they can't get it together in a hurry back home. The defending WNBA champions are down 2-0 to the upstart Golden State Valkyries in the WNBA semifinals.

Hammon fully believes Las Vegas can win three straight and return to the finals. The Aces host Game 3 on Friday night.

Yet the coach insists this group's championship pedigree and postseason history don't matter all that much at this stage. Every season is different; the rosters change.

“It should help but all the experience, all the records, all the championships, they don’t get to carry over,” Hammon said. “You have to go do this work every time you step out on the court. Our little comeback there at the end doesn't carry over, their 3s that they hit early on don't carry (over), everybody has to come to work and do the work over again, and my group understands that.”

Las Vegas has been outrebounded 82-50 over the initial two games. While the Aces shot far better than in the series opener, the small things — the hustle plays — still matter in close games.

“We've all got to box out,” center Kalani Brown said. “It's not just their post players getting it, it's their guards too flying in there. Very scrappy team and we've got to be scrappy with them, getting on the floor, those ugly, long rebounds from shooting 3s, we just have to have those because 50-50 balls win the glass. And if you win the glass you win the series.”

Hammon said before Wednesday’s 83-81 loss how important it would be to go home with a split, but the Valkyries have been too good in front of their rocking home crowd and now Las Vegas must find a way to turn around its fortunes.

Golden State point guard Veronica Burton delivered a crucial, deep 3-pointer down the stretch to help seal Game 2.

She and the Valkyries realize their job is far from done to take down three-time reigning MVP A'ja Wilson, Chelsea Gray and the Aces.

“We're focused on us. We're not necessarily focused on what's happened in the past. We've already seen this year, that doesn't matter, history, whatever,” Burton said. “We've got to take care of business. Every game we approach as a do-or-die situation, that's the reality of it. Obviously their backs are against the wall, they're the reigning champs, they have experience so it's not going to be easy. It's going to be a battle and we're going to approach it as such.”

Golden State coach Natalie Nakase quickly turned her attention to the team's preparation off the court as much as on it.

“Our focus for next game is rest and recover,” she said. “Vegas is hot, so that's dehydration. Let's call it what it is. You're flying, you're going to get dehydrated, when you land you're going to get dehydrated. We've got to make sure we're ready to go.”

Vegas is hot. San Francisco is loud.

Hammon is impressed by Golden State’s raucous “Ballhalla” crowd — “these fans ... they’re lit” — and stressed that better communication would be paramount because there’s nothing her team could do about the deafening noise, with thunder sticks pounding at every chance.

If the Aces can find a way to win two at home, they will have to return to the Bay Area for a deciding Game 5 next Wednesday night at Chase Center.

Hammon offered a main message for how it could happen:

“We’ve got to stay disciplined.”

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