When a team is as stacked and as proven as the Aces, a season quickly becomes a championship-or-bust year. Repeating as champions is incredibly difficult, but there’s really no other way the Aces can book this 2026 season as a success. They have too much talent to be satisfied with a semifinals or finals loss.
Their first game of the regular season raised some concerns about their ability to do just that. They lost an ugly 99-66 game against the Phoenix Mercury—a team that they swept in last year’s finals and that lost its leading scorer in the offseason when Satou Sabally signed with the New York Liberty.
It was an immediate reminder of the Aces’ slow start last season and a time when it looked like their era of dominance had come to an end. They turned things around in impressive fashion, but there’s no guarantee that they’ll be able to do that again and they really shouldn’t let it even get to that point.
While overreacting to just one game usually isn’t wise, it’s concerning that the Aces are plagued by the same issues they worked so hard to bury last season. Jewell Loyd and NaLyssa Smith aren’t newcomers anymore, and all of the most important players from last season’s championship team are still around. So, they cannot blame a slow start on unfamiliarity and needing to figure out players’ roles first. Even when that was the case, Becky Hammon didn’t think the slow start acceptable, though.
“I don’t want to repeat what we did last year,” Hammon said after the game. “That was not fun, the first half of the season. That’s not how we want to come out. It’s not the standard. It wasn’t acceptable last year. It’s not acceptable this year.”
The Aces really struggled against the Mercury
Offense wasn’t always easy to come by for the Aces in their season opener. They only scored three points in the first five minutes compared to the Mercury’s 12, and shot 21% from three for the game. They also committed 17 turnovers and conceded 19 points off those miscues, while the Mercury only turned the ball over eight times.
The aces also struggled defensively. Phoenix was able to score efficiently, and six players scored in double figures, including 28-year-old rookie Jovana Nogic, who finished with 19 points.
The Aces’ performance is especially disappointing because it happened on ring night, right after the team was honored for its decisive victory over the Mercury last season.
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