Becky Hammon apologized to her players this week. Her Las Vegas Aces were convincingly defeated by the New York Liberty in a sloppy, lethargic Game 2 of the WNBA semifinals, pushing their season to the brink. They were then soundly beaten by Hammon, who examined them at her press conferencewho tore their mentality apart during their title defense this season. She didn’t regret the content of her message, but she did regret the delivery.

“It wasn’t great wording on my part to convey what I wanted to convey, and probably not the best timing,” Hammon said during shootaround on Friday. “So I apologized to them as a group.”

She had not meant to say that her players were distracting themselves by appearing in television commercials. (“I want their faces everywhere,” she clarified. “I want them to get paid in every way possible, and that’s if you win.”) But she had intended to indicate what she saw as a lack of drive: “The benefit is what I begged for.” That had been absent for much of the early season, came to life down the stretch, and then only flickered occasionally during these playoffs.

Hammon won’t have to beg for it this weekend. Las Vegas had that lead – and some left – for Game 3 on Friday. The Aces defeated the Liberty 95-81. The win puts them 2-1 down in the best-of-five series and keeps their season alive for at least a few more days. The game was evenly matched early on: the first half featured a WNBA playoff record 18 lead changes. But Las Vegas broke it wide open in the third quarter and never looked back.

“That was probably our most complete game of the season,” Hammon said. “The game I’ve been waiting for and believed they had.”

That meant a balanced, expansive scoring effort from their entire cohort of guards, which is rare for the Aces this season. They almost always enjoy serious production MVP forward A’ja Wilson. But that too often came with solid performances from more than one guard. It was lacking in the first two games of the series: there was one standout night from Kelsey Plum (24 points in Game 1) and consistent quality play from Jackie Young, but there hadn’t been a game yet where all three starting guards were clicking, let alone ​​one in which all three scored in double figures. The Aces finally got that when they dismantled the Liberty on Friday. Young scored 24 points, Plum had 20 and Chelsea Gray added 10 with seven assists. For good measure, they also got double digits from another guard, with 11 for Tiffany Hayes on the same day she was announced as Sixth Player of the Year. It represented the kind of guard play Hammon had been trying to unlock all year.

“Man, that’s what we were waiting for,” Gray said afterward, laughing.

Their central problems of the past week seemed to suddenly disappear. The Aces’ defense felt cohesive. Players no longer got lost on switches. They reduced sloppy play and careless turnovers. And they were able to pressure the Liberty in a way that is very rare for the best team in the WNBA this season. (There had only been one match this year in which they were held to fewer points.) Despite a remarkable size advantage for New York– which had been crucial in the first two games of this series – Las Vegas was able to own the paint. Game 2 featured a 44-24 advantage on points in the paint for the Liberty. Game 3 nearly reversed that mark, with the Aces holding a 42-28 advantage, including an impressive task-limiting Jonquel Jones at New York center.

“This isn’t easy,” said Liberty forward Breanna Stewart, who led the team with a rating of 19, below her average for these playoffs. “And we saw that tonight.”

Las Vegas’ most impressive defensive assignment came from New York guard Sabrina Ionescu. The first two games of this series were largely defined by her ability to score at all three levels. The Aces didn’t let her score on any of those points in Game 3. They held her scoreless through the entire first three quarters and held her to just four points overall. (It was her lowest scoring performance this year, aside from the final game of the regular season, when she was given limited minutes in a game and nothing to play for.) They locked her on the perimeter, but they did their best to hold her. also from driving. She only made seven shots.

“They gave Sabrina very little space, were so active with their hands and got deflections,” Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said. “It felt very physical.”

It was a show of strength of what this Aces team can be at its best. It got them one more game – and nothing more.

“The moment you get comfortable, you’re exposed,” Gray said. “We haven’t done anything yet.”