The Las Vegas Aces and the New York Liberty are ready for a rematch.
Last year, the two teams met in the WNBA Finals, with Las Vegas winning its second straight championship, beating New York 3-1 in the series. This season, their matchup comes in the second round, after the No. 1-seeded Liberty swept the No. 8-seeded Dream and the No. 4-seeded Aces did the same to the No. 5-seeded Storm in an 83-76 win in Game 2 on Tuesday night.
It comes at a different time in the playoffs, but the Aces are expecting the same intensity and an even better Liberty team.
“New York is a lot better than last year,” Kelsey Plum said. “Just plain. They’re bigger. They’ve been throwing the ball at a better clip. Pound for pound, individually, if you look at the line, they’re all better players.”
They have also beaten Las Vegas three times this season.
“They’ve played like an angry team,” Las Vegas coach Becky Hammon said of the Liberty (32-8). “They’ve played with an edge. And we’ve worked to get it. I feel like we’ve gotten our edge back over the last three or four weeks.”
Despite a season filled with ups and downs, the defending champion Aces are happy with where they are. After clinching the No. 1 seed in 2022 and 2023, Las Vegas has a tougher path to a possible three-peat, a feat that hasn’t happened since the Houston Comets won four straight titles from 1997-2000.
Las Vegas seemed like an ideal opponent for Seattle. In Game 1, the Aces held the Storm to just two points in the fourth quarter, using a strong defensive effort to power their way to victory. And in Game 2, it was a great shooting start that laid the groundwork for the win. The Aces led by as many as 16 points in the first quarter and made 5 of 6 three-pointers. The Storm rallied, but the deficit was too large to overcome.
“We know what it takes (to win),” A’ja Wilson said. “We know we can’t let the game slip away from us, because we’ve been there. We know what it feels like. It just comes down to fighting, being on the same page and keeping the main thing, the main thing.”
Wilson was a big part of the win over Seattle, just as he has been in every game for the Aces this season. While several aspects of the Aces’ offense have been inconsistent, Wilson has been a constant. His 26.9 points, 11.9 rebounds and 2.6 blocks per game earned him his third MVP award, and his 24 points and 13 rebounds on Tuesday helped Las Vegas advance to the semifinals.
Las Vegas also got a boost from Plum, who bounced back from a poor showing in Game 1. On Sunday, Plum scored just 2 points on 1-of-8 shooting from the field. But between Game 1 and Game 2, Plum sat at a sushi bar and gave himself a mental pep talk.
“I thought, ‘I’m going to throw this whole game out the window,’” Plum said. “And it worked.”
Plum finished with 29 points on 11-of-15 shooting in Game 2 to lead Las Vegas in scoring.
Perhaps the biggest difference between the Aces who struggled at times during the regular season and the Aces who defeated the Storm is Chelsea Gray.
Gray missed the first 12 games of the season with a foot injury she suffered during the 2023 WNBA Finals. She returned before the Olympic break and later helped Team USA win a gold medal, but it took most of the season for Gray to look like the player who was named Finals MVP in 2022.
Against Seattle, the Aces had Gray at her best. In Game 1, she finished with 16 points and 7 assists, and in Game 2, the veteran guard recorded 12 points and 9 assists. But more importantly, she’s taking (and scoring) the kind of high-difficulty shots that have propelled Las Vegas through the past two postseasons.
“Chelsea influences winning,” Plum said. “And ask any senior player in the league and I guarantee they would want Chelsea Gray in their team with five minutes to go in a drawn game. They would pick her any day. I mean, I know they would.”
New York knows what it’s getting into with Gray in top form. Before his foot injury last season, Gray led Las Vegas to two wins over the Liberty, finishing with 20 points and 9 assists, and then 14 points and 11 assists.
The Liberty also know Wilson, Plum and Jackie Young, but they have their own group of stars, with two former MVPs in Jonquel Jones and Breanna Stewart, and one of the brightest young stars in the league in Sabrina Ionescu.
Both teams are playing their best basketball. It’s a second-round game, but the semifinal series between Las Vegas and New York has the makings of an instant classic.