Becky Hammon Sends Blunt Message After Blowout Loss to Indiana Fever originally appeared on Athlon Sports.

The Las Vegas Aces entered Thursday night with a prime opportunity to secure a road win against an Indiana Fever squad playing without star point guard Caitlin Clark for the fourth straight game.

But much like their Commissioner’s Cup performance against the Minnesota Lynx, the Fever leaned on their defense — and it paid off. Indiana stifled the Aces’ offense from start to finish, cruising to an 81-54 victory and dropping Las Vegas to 8-9 on the season.

After the game, Aces head coach Becky Hammon didn’t hold back, calling it “one of the worst performances I’ve ever seen.”

“That’s a complete lack of professionalism to come here with that effort,” Hammon said. “They played better yesterday in practice by a lot. I don’t know how you step onto the floor with 20,000 people in the stands and perform like that. It is the worst offensive night I’ve ever seen [since] I’ve been here in the last four years.”

It was a true team effort for the Indiana Fever in their dominant 27-point win, with Kelsey Mitchell leading the charge with 25 points and Aliyah Boston adding 20 of her own. But the x-factor continues to be Aari McDonald, who has stepped into the starting lineup in Caitlin Clark’s absence. McDonald contributed across the board, finishing with eight points, seven rebounds, and seven assists.

For the Las Vegas Aces, it was essentially the A’ja Wilson show — and little else. Wilson scored 29 points, outscoring the rest of her team combined, as no other Aces player recorded more than six points or made more than two field goals.

Aces scoring tonight:

29 — A’ja Wilson (9-18 FG)
25 — everyone else combined (7-43 FG) pic.twitter.com/uvWB6mIwXk

— StatMuse (@statmuse) July 4, 2025

“If I knew which team was going to show up, I could prepare myself better,” head coach Becky Hammon said postgame. “We went out to Phoenix and played the best team in the league — and we put together four solid quarters. Tonight, we put together one. Three quarters of trash. The offense was trash. The defense was trash.

They just wanted it more than us, and that’s the most disturbing part — when another team wants it more. Because that’s effort. That’s heart.”

Related: Stephanie White Bracing for Punishment After Technical in Fever’s 27-Point Win

This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jul 4, 2025, where it first appeared.