Liberty vs Aces WNBA Finals: New York Liberty Defeat Aces to Reach Finals

The Liberty vs Aces had said how they knew it would not be easy to defend their title and clinch three titles in succession. In an already difficult regular season and after a very competitive semifinal match against the first seed. Liberty vs Aces WNBA Finals, it became even more challenging.

Also read: Minnesota Lynx vs New York Liberty Match Player Stats: Complete Overview

Standing before the Liberty. The No. 4 Aces struggled but could not catch up to their opponents and bowed out in the series with a 3-1 set after the 76-62 loss in Game 4.

The New York Liberty, who have never won a WNBA title before this year. Will now appear in the WNBA Finals series for the sixth time. This will be their second consecutive appearance in the Liberty vs Aces WNBA Finals. The Liberty will play either the Minnesota Lynx or the Connecticut Sun. Having beaten that team in the prior Game 5 set for Tuesday.

Read more: Las Vegas Aces Standings: Sky Boost Playoff Hopes; Wings Out

The Liberty were superior to the Aces this year. Having beaten them in six of the seven games, and sweep the regular season games. Becky Hammon, coach for Aces said about New York, They’ve been the best team all year.

But, Liberty star Breanna Stewart indicated that the team is still a work in progress saying. We haven’t done anything yet.

Aces MVP A’ja Wilson said this of a three-peat: ‘I do not know if it is hard because it has not been done before. But it’s definitely tough because every year is different and the stakes are high. It is only the Houston Comets that have achieved the successive victories for three consecutive years. In the 1997, 1998 and 2000 season.

Despite actually only being down by two points in the beginning of the fourth quarter. Sunday’s game was almost always a close score. But, the New York Liberty came storming back to score 23-11 and then built an even more decisive 16-2 run to assure the win. This final push from New York was reminiscent of some of Las Vegas’ issues for the entire season.

A’ja Wilson led the Aces with 19 points, shooting 53.8%, but her teammates struggled to help. The Aces’ guards, who had been key in past championship runs, were less effective this season. Kelsey Plum, Tiffany Hayes, Chelsea Gray, and Jackie Young combined for just 12-of-42 shooting (28.6%).

The team also struggled from the 3-point line, hitting only 7 of 30 attempts (23.3%). New York capitalized on easy layups, a weakness Las Vegas had shown earlier in the series.

Aces coach Becky Hammon compared her team to the Minnesota Lynx. Saying the Aces had great talent but weren’t a great team this season. She emphasized that success requires consistent work, effort, and commitment, qualities New York displayed all year. Hammon acknowledged that after talking tough last year, the Liberty got to smack us this year.

Las Vegas had a tough season, the hardest during Hammon’s three-year coaching period. They started with a 6-6 record, matching the total losses they had in all of 2023 by mid-June. The team also had its reasons; point guard Chelsea Gray sat out the first 13 games of the season due to a foot injury sustained in the previous year’s finals.

Off court issues were also trending through the Las Vegas Aces season playing schedule. The league began looking into the team for possible violations of the salary cap in May. Last month, the acl squadex-player D.Myers, formerly a forward, sued for pregnancy discrimination, intimidation, and retaliation the Aces and the Wnba collectively.

However, the Aces did not back down despite of the aforementioned issues. Chelsea Gray opined that the team could have folded a lot earlier but the team stepped it up and was playing their best basketball through the last 10 games of the regular season before the playoffs.

Carrying the hope and after a big 3 win, they failed in game 4 which was the first time since 2021 that the Aces did not finish the season as champions.

Showing the emotions, head coach Becky Hammon said how upset they were about that and mentioned that it only made them hard after such a stellar season by A’ja Wilson. Indeed, both Gray and Wilson echoed the pains of having given it a good push but coming close only to fail. But Wilson said it best: It sucks, it stings but for me it’s something I am proud to have done.

The New York Liberty who were constructed to give a competitive fight to the Aces put up a good show. They limited Las Vegas to only 32.8 percent shooting and benefited from the new faces in their roster such as German rookie Leonie Fiebich.

Sabrina Ionescu said the Aces were a great team that challenged the Liberty to step up their game. But the Liberty is aware they’ve yet to play their best and won the game. Two home games and the Liberty are now just three victories shy of their first WNBA championship.