The Las Vegas Aces won the WNBA Championship in 2025, and that's something the team is definitely hoping to repeat this year. They're well on their way to doing so — the team is ranked third in the WNBA, just under the Golden State Valkyries and the Minnesota Lynx (who occupy the top spot).
But as the Aces themselves proved last season, nothing in the WNBA is promised or guaranteed, and there's still plenty of time for quite a few teams to power their way through the standings. The Aces are followed by the Indiana Fever, Atlanta Dream, Washington Mystics, Dallas Wings, and New York Liberty. The Portland Fire are hovering on the cusp of the playoffs and are ninth in the league.
To keep the rest of the WNBA at bay, the Aces will need to focus on two things: rebounding and defense. And that comes straight from head coach Becky Hammon, who told reporters after the team's win over the Mystics this week, "Our season depends on defense and rebounding. And I’m going to continue to demand it. It’s that important. I didn’t think we did a great job tonight."
Though Las Vegas won the game, the team definitely did not win the rebounding battle against the Mystics, who have easily proven to be one of the scrappiest and most surprising teams this season. The Mystics boast three players who are incredible at rebounding: Lauren Betts, Shakira Austin, and Kiki Iriafen, and the team leads the league in rebounds with 37.7. The Mystics out-rebounded the Aces 41-30, and they also bested the Aces in terms of scoring in the paint.
Hammon's commentary on defense isn't anything new — she's made it well-known this season that this is an area in which the team can and has to improve. And it's not that they don't have all the players they need to do so; A'ja Wilson is a three-time Defensive Player of the Year (DPOY) and currently leads the league in blocks per game. If there is one player that a lot of fans would collectively cite as an example of having true defensive prowess, it's Wilson.
But she doesn't play on an island, and there's a common refrain when it comes to Wilson: she can't do it all by herself. The Aces have played together as a team much better this season than they did during the first half of 2025, and now it's time for the team to collectively (and defensively) lock in.
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