NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� A’ja Wilson, Chelsea Gray and Jackie Young all missed Las Vegas’ game against the New York Liberty to rest on Sunday, when the team was playing the second half of a .
The in a nationally televised game and didn’t arrive at their hotel in New York until nearly 10 p.m. after making the almost 1,200-mile trek from Minneapolis.
鈥淚 mean, everybody has a brutal schedule at some point. I don鈥檛 even think they do this in the NBA, though, where it鈥檚 less than 24 hours,鈥� Aces coach Becky Hammon said. 鈥淵ou can check, but I鈥檓 pretty sure that鈥檚 not even legal on the NBA side, you鈥檇 have to look up. But I don鈥檛 recall. With the time change, it ends up being that.鈥�
The NBA, like the WNBA, actually won’t make a team travel two times zones or have less than 22 hours between games if it鈥檚 playing consecutive days, according to a person familiar with scheduling. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they weren鈥檛 authorized to speak publicly about it.
Hammon said the No. 1 priority for her and the Aces is the players’ health.
鈥淲e鈥檙e going to always be on the side of health and safety for our players,” she said. “I鈥檓 not going to put them in any kind of jeopardy to get hurt when we鈥檝e been expending a lot of energy on travel and a lot of miles back and forth crisscrossing the country.鈥�
Sunday鈥檚 game against the Liberty was on ABC and had a 12:30 p.m. EDT tipoff because the network was showing the Little League Softball World Series championship game afterward.
The early tipoff meant an early wake up and arriving at the arena less than 12 hours after the Aces got to their hotel.
Sunday’s contest caps a five-game road trip for the Aces that started last Saturday in Chicago. The Aces lost that game and then went on to rout Atlanta. A stop in Indiana on Thursday ended with an overtime victory by Las Vegas thanks to buzzer-beating 3-pointers by Gray at the end of regulation and overtime.
Even without Las Vegas’ top three players, Liberty coach Chris DeMarco wasn’t going to take the Aces lightly.
鈥淵ou can鈥檛 go in this game and think they鈥檙e not going to be like, oh, there鈥檚 60 points missing. It鈥檚 my turn to get to work, so it鈥檚 dangerous,” DeMarco said. “We鈥檒l be ready for it.鈥�
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