Aces edge Liberty to secure 2nd straight WNBA championship،
NEW YORK – The Las Vegas Aces piled on top of each other at half court as the buzzer sounded to cement Wednesday’s 70-69 victory in Game 4 over the New York Liberty and the 2023 WNBA championship , had already been there.
But this title? The one where they became the first repeat WNBA champions in over 20 years despite a future Hall of Famer, last year’s Finals MVP and a defensive anchor on the bench, in more of what was already a rollercoaster season off the field?
“This one is softer,” coach Becky Hammon said after the Aces finished with a 3-1 lead in the final series. “It just is. It’s harder to do.”
In the midst of a season full of what they call adversity and distractions, the Aces joined the Houston Comets (1997-2000) and Los Angeles Sparks (2001-02) as the only franchises to win multiple championships. ‘in a row.
“That’s what it’s all about, having your name etched in history right now with other teams,” Finals MVP A’ja Wilson said. “We never gave up, and it’s a moment we have to celebrate. It’s a moment that not many people get the chance to do it, and for us to do it shorthanded, it’s truly incredible . win all the better.”
The Barclays Center had been rocking like the early 2000s all week with big crowds and a slew of former Liberty greats and celebrities, but the arena transformed into a Las Vegas celebration late in the day. Wednesday. Aces owner Mark Davis was on hand to hoist the championship trophy. MVP” chants rained down from the Aces faithful in the crowd as Wilson was named Finals MVP, made all the sweeter by the fact that she didn’t win the regular season honor. And amid boos from Liberty’s remaining fans, reserve Sydney Colson grabbed the microphone at the end of the trophy presentation to proclaim “Night, night.”
Las Vegas closed out its title run despite the absence of point guard Chelsea Gray and starting center Kiah Stokes, who both suffered foot injuries in Game 3. The Aces are the first team in WNBA history to win a playoff game without several starters from the previous one. game.
But the team viewed these absences as the latest of many obstacles they had to overcome. The players cited their chemistry and closeness as what allowed them to persevere — and now are doing the improbable by beating a tough New York team on their home court without a defensive force in Stokes and their offensive leader in Gray.
“We are professionals,” Wilson said. “We’re ready when our name is called, and we kept the basics, the essentials. It wasn’t easy at all. A lot of people excluded us. A lot of people excluded us from jumping… that just fueled us.”
“It’s proof that your character will reflect your culture,” Hammon added. “And if you have bad character, you don’t have that culture. And we’ve had plenty of time to fall apart. But because of their character and the culture that we’ve built, you can’t break this group .You just can’t.”
Sticking together, they did it: With Alysha Clark and Cayla George (in her first playoff start) taking Gray and Stokes’ spots in the starting lineup, and Colson seeing an extended run, the Aces overcame a deficit by 12 points to take a two-point lead. in the final frame. Despite a late New York rally in which the Liberty tied the game on several occasions and then pulled within a point with 41.7 seconds left, Las Vegas never trailed in the fourth quarter. The Aces sealed their championship with a defensive stop on the final play following a miss by Courtney Vandersloot.
The Aces are the second team in WNBA history to win a title with a one-point victory, joining the 2016 Sparks, who beat the Minnesota Lynx 77-76 in Game 5.
Wilson led the Aces with 24 points and 16 rebounds, his Finals MVP being the latest in an ever-growing collection of trophies and accolades that already included last season’s title, a national championship at South Carolina, gold medals with Team USA at the World Cup and Olympics. , and two league MVP awards. She became the first player in WNBA history with at least 20 points and 15 rebounds in a decisive Finals victory.
Jackie Young added 16 points and seven assists.
New York fell to 2-10 all-time in the WNBA Finals and is still looking for its first championship. Teams that fall to 0-2 in best-of-five series are 0-18 all-time in those series, including 0-9 in the Finals.
“It’s because of Vegas: They were down and they found a way,” Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said. “We fought, but it wasn’t our best game today. … We have to learn from it and look at it as a learning experience now and as we move forward, and remember that that we feel and use it as motivation.”
Following their 2022 championship, the Aces were considered favorites to repeat, leading the league in offensive rating (113.0, best in league history) and defensive rating (97.7) during the regular season, en route to the No. 1 overall seed. with a record of 34-6. If anyone was going to stand in their way, it was Liberty, a so-called superteam that acquired Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones and Vandersloot in the offseason. Two of the Aces’ regular season losses were against the Liberty, who also beat them in the Commissioner’s Cup championship game.
But in the postseason, Las Vegas played some of its best basketball and cemented its status as one of the greatest teams in WNBA history. The Aces lost only one game in the playoffs, to the Liberty in Game 3, and beat New York by a combined 45 points in their first two wins of the series, setting them up for victory from Wednesday.
Becky Hammon, who was hired ahead of the 2022 campaign, has now won a WNBA title in each of her first two seasons as head coach. The only other coaches who have done this in the WNBA or NBA are Van Chancellor (who led the Houston Comets to the first four WNBA championships) and John Kundla of the Minneapolis Lakers (1948-49 and 1949-50).
After winning the franchise’s first championship last season in four games against the Connecticut Sun, the Aces bolstered their talent during the offseason by bringing in two-time league MVP Candace Parker in free agency, as well as veteran Clark. But their 2023 campaign has not gone smoothly.
They lost Parker for the season before the All-Star Break to a left foot injury (with Wednesday’s win, she is the only player in WNBA history to win a title with three different teams: Los Angeles, Chicago and Las Vegas).
They were also without key reserve Riquna Williams, who was injured earlier in the year and has been out of the team since her arrest in July, although domestic violence-related charges were dropped by the following. And after the Aces traded former player Dearica Hamby to the Los Angeles Sparks in January, she accused Hammon and the organization of pregnancy discrimination and has since filed a complaint with the EEOC; the coach and the franchise refuted these claims, saying Hamby was traded solely for business reasons.
On Wednesday, the Aces entered Game 4 without Gray, the 2022 Finals MVP, and Stokes, forcing Hammon to rely on George (30 minutes, 11 points) and Colson (14 minutes) when they previously used almost entirely a six-man rotation without them. . Hammon said that when she called George before the game to tell him she was starting, the fourth-year Australian player was lifting weights in the weight room with her husband.
“She’s part of our fabric,” Hammon said. “She stayed ready.”
Clark added 10 points in 36 minutes.
“You waited patiently in the wings, locked away,” Hammon said of his reservations. “They don’t know. They found out tonight.”
While the Aces have etched their name in WNBA history as repeat champions, there is bad news for the rest of the league: Las Vegas’ core of Wilson, Plum, Young and Gray is under contract for 2024 and will look to renew it next year. — and the Aces may be poised to become the league’s next dynasty.
“We went from darling to naughty very quickly,” Hammon said. “We’ve slandered our names, our good reputations. And all these women did was lock themselves together. And you ask why I’m so confident, it’s because I know exactly who is in this locker room. … It’s probably the tightest group. I’ve always been around. And it’s a special group. I don’t know. I don’t know what else you could throw at them.
