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The Las Vegas Aces head coach has won back-to-back championships in 2022 and 2023, but has seen her team struggle so far this year, making a change to their game plan to stop Caitlin Clark this weekend
Las Vegas Aces head coach Becky Hammon had a game plan against Caitlin Clark, but had to make a change during the game to help her team defeat the Indiana Fever.
The Aces have been one of the better teams in the WNBA over the last three years, having the best win record alongside championships in 2022 and 2023. But they’ve struggled so far this season – losing five of their previous six games before facing the Fever on Sunday evening.
Gearing up to stop Clark’s incredible offensive abilities, Hammon had planned to throw different defensive looks at her – giving the Fever star little space to operate and force mistakes.
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But after Clark started the game strongly, Hammon admitted that she ditched the game plan and instead went back to something that they’d been more accustomed to.
Speaking to reporters after the game, Hammon said: “We talked about Caitlin, pockets are her money. You give her any kind of space in that pick-and-roll, that ball is gone, and they’re getting layups.
“I thought they got that in the first half, and then we were able to switch up our defense to, I guess something more doable, and something that we could execute better than the original scheme.
“I think I called a timeout with about six something left in the first quarter. So yeah, I aborted it about four minutes later.”
The new game plan looked to be an old reliable for Hammon, using her best defensive and overall player in A’ja Wilson to give Clark a tough time.
And while Clark finished the game with 19 points and 10 assists, Wilson’s ability to switch up on to her clearly impacted the Fever’s offense. Indiana had struggled to create the looks that they’d have wanted, with Clark being forced into tough shots.
Meanwhile, fellow guard Sophie Cunningham struggled mightily in the game, going scoreless in 17 minutes with the Fever forced to feed the ball to their forwards.
Wilson, though, registered 24 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, and 3 blocks in 34 minutes to go with her defensive masterclass performance.
The Fever and Aces have both not had the start to the season that they’d have hoped, with a 6-7 record. Clark and Wilson have both missed time for their respective teams, and will be hoping to get them back on track after both returning in the past week.
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