NEW YORK -- Without A'ja Wilson, Chelsea Gray and Jackie Young, the Las Vegas Aces were no match for the New York Liberty, losing 111-71 on Sunday.
Coach Becky Hammon rested her top three players because the Aces were playing the second half of a difficult back-to-back after losing in Minnesota on Saturday.
"My players' health is the most important," Hammon said after the game. "You got to be healthy and fresh as much as possible, obviously, after going through a season. So, the health and safety of players come first. Where we end up [in the standings], we end up."
Hammon felt resting her top players could help the team on the back end of the schedule because all three will be taking part in the FIBA World Cup next month, so they won't be getting any rest when the WNBA goes on break next month for a few weeks. The result was a 40-point margin, which is tied for the second-largest loss in franchise history, according to ESPN Research.
"I'm not going to put them in any kind of jeopardy to get hurt when we've been expending a lot of energy on travel and a lot of miles back and forth crisscrossing the country," Hammon said.
The decision to rest the trio was shaped by a brutal schedule. After the loss to Minnesota, the team didn't arrive at its hotel in New York until nearly 10 p.m. after making the almost 1,200-mile trek from Minneapolis.
"I mean, everybody has a brutal schedule at some point. I don't even think they do this in the NBA, though, where it's less than 24 hours," Hammon said. "With the time change, it ends up being that."
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's playing consecutive days, according to a person familiar with scheduling. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly about it.
"I mean, I was shocked," New York guard Rebecca Allen said. "I was shocked for three people to sit out, but it's also, part of it is what we said to ourselves in the locker room, like, 'Hey, this is a moment for us to focus on us.'"
Sunday's 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.
"We were a little bit disappointed, to be honest with you, because we were really looking forward to the matchup, and we also felt like this was going to be a really good game to kind of gauge ourselves against, with all the momentum that we have had," New York center Jonquel Jones said. "But obviously, they have to do what's right for their team, they have to do what's right for their bodies. But as competitors, we really wanted to match up against them."
Sunday's contest capped 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.
"They had a quick turnaround, and obviously, player safety is first, and health is first," Liberty coach Chris DeMarco said. "It's a dangerous game for us -- other players get more opportunities -- so, we just wanted to keep our aggression from the start and just keep playing our brand of basketball."
Now the Aces head home for five straight games in Las Vegas.
The Associated Press and ESPN's Alexa Philippou contributed to this report.