Before the Las Vegas Aces first game at Barclays Center on Sunday against the New York Liberty, Becky Hammon said out loud what everyone already knew, or at least suspected: “This team right here,” Hammon said, referring to the heavily remade New York Liberty, “was built to eliminate you.
It was a reference to last offseason’s frenzied free agency that pushed the WNBA into its first Super Team era. The Aces, favorites for the repeat, were not too keen on the idea that a team could be assembled overnight to face them.
“A lot of people picked Liberty in five (games),” Aces star A’ja Wilson said. “We know it, we see it. This (stuff) fueled us.
And on Wednesday night, they showed how good they are, even without some key pieces.
Behind Wilson’s 24 points and 16 rebounds, a (considerably) shorthanded Las Vegas team came back from a 12-point lead. beat New York 70-69 in game 4 of the WNBA Finals, winning the series 3-1. This is the Aces’ second straight championship under Hammon, and they are the first back-to-back WNBA champions since the Los Angeles Sparks won it all in 2001 and 2002.
“This one is softer,” Hammon said. “(Repeating) is hard to do. We went from darling to naughty very quickly.
The title did not come without drama.
After the teams traded scores for the first three and a half quarters, the score was 60 with 5:26 to play. Then the teams traded baskets until, with 8.8 seconds remaining and trailing by one point, 70-69, New York called a timeout and set up a play to Breanna Stewart, the 2023 MVP.
But Stewart was hounded by Aces’ Alysha Clark and had to kick the ball out. He eventually landed in the corner with Courtney Vandersloot, who took a rushing shot. She rolled a 3 and that was it.
“I put the ball in the hands of the (2023) MVP,” New York coach Sandy Brondello said. “It just didn’t work. I would do it again. It was the right decision.
Vegas frustrated Stewart all night, limiting her to just 10 points on 3-of-17 shooting. Stewart said the Liberty had times where “we lost our flow and our ball movement” and the Aces were “just throwing us the defense they had, they made sure it was ugly…We knew they were going to destroy it.”
This was a particularly impressive win for Las Vegas considering what the Aces lacked. They were against All-Star point guard Chelsea Gray and forward Kiah Stokes – who combined to average 17.5 points, 8.4 rebounds and 7.9 assists for the Aces this season as they compiled a 34-6 record – and the team struggled to adjust early to life without his general on the ground.
The Aces turned the ball over eight times in the first quarter, which New York turned into seven points, before calming down. They finished with just 13 turnovers, but the Liberty got going as well, ending the half on an 8-0 run to take a 39-30 lead going into the break.
Then Vegas, the best team in the league in the third quarter, took over. The Aces dominated the third quarter 23-12 and continued their winning streak into the final period, outscoring New York 16-2 on a crucial stretch.
Another key takeaway during this period was the huge charge taken by Clark, the league’s Sixth Woman of the Year. With Gray and Stokes, the Aces are gone Candace Parker since the beginning of July. Parker was a significant offseason acquisition for the Aces, a two-time MVP and seven-time All-Star who is also one of the best defenders in women’s basketball. But on Wednesday, Vegas’ defense was more than adequate without her, Gray and Stokes.
Hammon later admitted, “We put up a defense, and they executed all this crap. »
Clark joked in response: “Fortune favors the bold, Becky!”
Four Aces scored in double figures, including Clark (10) and Cayla George (11), who both started with Gray and Stokes out. Clark also grabbed eight rebounds. Jackie Young scored 16 points.
New York was led by Vandersloot, who finished with 19 points.
