Becky Hammon Pinpoints 'Deflating' Factor That Led to Fever Win vs Aces

Becky Hammon shows that the Indiana Fever's offensive rebounding was a big factor in their July 5 win against her Las Vegas Aces.

Las Vegas Aces head coach Becky Hammon | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The Indiana Fever tallied 13 offensive rebounds during their 84-68 win against the Las Vegas Aces on July 5, while the Aces only had 6 offensive boards.

Aces head coach Becky Hammon conveyed how this discrepancy hurt her team's chances of winning when speaking to the media after Sunday's game.

"Boards definitely hurt us," Hammon said, per a YouTube video from The Ballers Magazine. She then added, "The [offensive] boards definitely hurt us in the third quarter. [It] gets to be a compounding effect when you're not getting stops, or they're getting second, third, fourth opportunities. It's just super deflating."

This was also something that Fever head coach Stephanie White highlighted when speaking to her team in the locker room postgame, saying, "13 offensive rebounds! Extra possessions matter. Extra possessions matter. We out-rebounded them 39-30. Really good stuff," per a post from the Fever's X account.

inside the locker room after our 84-68 dub over the Aces 🎥 pic.twitter.com/3igYBcNHIS

— Indiana Fever (@IndianaFever) July 6, 2026

Fever Capitalized on A'ja Wilson's Absence With Offensive Rebounding Supremacy

While not having Caitlin Clark (who was sidelined with a back issue) hurt, the Fever entered this game with a clear advantage in the frontcourt, since superstar Aces center A'ja Wilson wasn't active because she's dealing with an ankle injury.

Because of this, the Fever's clearest path to victory was playing through Aliyah Boston and winning the paint battle. And that's exactly what the Fever did, as Boston scored 18 points and secured 10 rebounds, 3 of which were on the offensive end.

But the entire Fever roster deserves credit for being effective on the offensive glass, as it took a team effort to tally 13 offensive rebounds. Monique Billings added two of her own, Lexie Hull grabbed two, and Raven Johnson managed to get three offensive rebounds off the bench, despite being a guard and playing just 22 minutes.

This speaks to the Fever being intentional about crashing the glass when possible, and this collective effort was a major difference-maker against the Aces.

The Fever aren't necessarily known for their offensive rebounding prowess. Their 8.3 offensive boards per game this year puts them at No. 9 overall. Although it's worth noting that eight teams in the league are somewhere between 8 and 8.8 offensive rebounds per game, which shows that the Fever are about average in this regard.

But having a good offensive rebounding game was more important than usual on Sunday, given Wilson's absence. And the Fever did what they needed to.