Sunday afternoon, the New York Liberty (22-6) took on the Las Vegas Aces (24-3) in a sold-out arena in the Barclays. These two teams have been hyped up to be the premier favorites to meet in the championship, therefore both teams have taken this game personally. In the first encounter, the Liberty was defeated by a sizeable margin, but this time around they responded with a dominant win of their own, defeating the defending champions, 99-61. Although the Liberty has gotten the better of the Aces in this matchup, both teams will encounter each other three more times before the season concludes. That said, this is the beginning of a beautiful rivalry.
"We just proved to ourselves what we're able to do," New York Liberty superstar guard Sabrina Ionescu said. "We've set the level of how we need to play every single game in order to be at our best ... we're not sitting here jumping for joy that we beat them. It's just a wake-up call of how good we can actually be, and that's the standard of New York basketball. Now we have to continue to get better throughout the next month.”
Some of the notable players from Sunday’s game were many of the Liberty’s role players. While being led by Ionescu, ultimately recording 31 points and seven assists, the Liberty won by committee. Late in the game, All-Star Breanna Stewart began finding her rhythm (22 points) along with Betnijah Laney (13 points on 50% shooting), and former MVP Jonquel Jones (12 points and 14 rebounds) having a dominating presence in the paint.
Early Start for the New York Liberty
Throughout the first quarter, the intensity was pretty even and the energy in the building was electric. Nonetheless, the Liberty began finding creative ways to gain extra possessions by causing careless turnovers. They went on a 12-2 run with roughly eight minutes remaining in the first quarter. Many of the Liberty’s first-half points came in transition and it appears they are beginning to find their identity. It’s no secret that the Liberty find themselves most successful when running north and south rather than east to west. This means the shooting of this team allows them to space the floor abnormally, which causes many mismatches for opposing teams.
“Just the players staying locked in with how we want to play and it’s an area we have spoken about a lot,” Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello stated. “Just being intentional with our play regardless of winning or losing and just playing the right way.”
Naturally, great defense often leads to easy offense, however the momentum the Liberty attempted to build was quickly diminished by the Aces fast effective scoring. Oftentimes, whenever the Liberty would find key moments to go on a run, Aces star guard Jackie Young or Kelsey Plum continued to answer. For a moment, the offense appeared to stall out although both teams struggled to shoot as a team in the opening quarter. Among the back and forth, the Aces trailed the Liberty by four points at halftime, 49-45.
Tale of Two Halves
Although the Liberty led at the half by a small margin, everything changed after halftime. In the second half, Ionescu didn’t appear to let up and this opened up the floor for everyone else. She took the game over and once she appeared to be slowing down, Stewart began to find her rhythm and contributed to the scoring late in the game. Aces' superstars A'ja Wilson and Kelsey Plum were contained for the majority of the game, ultimately allowing the Liberty to gain confidence. One would agree, it’s abnormal for Wilson to shoot 2-14, however this should be credited to the Jones’ paint presence and really embracing the challenge.
From beginning to end, the Jones' intensity never dwindled and it appeared she was sending a message to the league by recording a double-double on whom many regard the WNBA’s best player. Nonetheless, during Wilson's press conference, she emphasized how her confidence will never dwindle and that she will continue to be successful and be better next time.
“I don’t need a stat sheet to validate who I am in this league,” Wilson emphasized.
That said, clearly she understood she didn’t play well and looked to improve, which possibly created more motivation moving forward for the Aces’ next opponents.
“There’s stuff to learn from that eventually will be positive, but we didn’t do a lot of good things,” Aces head coach Becky Hammon stated. “We didn’t come to play, we didn’t show up. I’m not sure if we were just going to show up and beat a team like this, but we’ll see them a few more times.”
“We’ll regroup but right now we have another tough in Dallas coming up. However, we’ll be seeing these teams frequently so I won’t dwell on the negative too long,” Hammon continued.
Not everyday do you get to casually interview and have a convo with a 🐐 like @BeckyHammon @_ajawilson22 and @cgray209 @LVAces pic.twitter.com/lok3GbYdAl
— John “Woods” Armwood III (@J_Armwood908) August 7, 2023
Looking Ahead for the New York Liberty
Moving forward, the Liberty can use this game and begin to build off their momentum and ride this into the playoffs. Many believe these two “superteams” will face each other in the WNBA Championship. Their next opponents, Los Angeles Sparks, will travel to the Barclays on Friday evening. In their previous matchup, the Liberty managed to defeat the Sparks, 76-69.
The Liberty appears to be playing with an intention and direct mindset. That said, this win against the Aces had home could have instilled an immense amount of confidence throughout the team that may carry on for the remainder of the season and possibly playoffs.
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