LAS VEGAS – Becky Hammon waited and believed in this version of the Las Vegas Aces. The two-time champions are at their best when their trio of guards click on all cylinders around three-time MVP A’ja Wilson. It was a version that was absent for much of the season, and certainly didn’t appear in Brooklyn during the first two semifinal games.
“Man, we were waiting for that too,” Chelsea Gray said after masterfully leading the Aces offense to that version of itself.
The Aces not only survived the brink of elimination, but went full throttle in a dominant 95-81 home win on Friday to keep their season and their hopes for a third title alive. The tight contest opened in the third quarter, which the Aces won 21-6. Liberty leads the series 2-1 and will look to secure a spot in the Finals on Sunday (3 p.m. ET, ABC).
Jackie Young led all scorers with 24 points and 4 three-pointers. Kelsey Plum scored 20, going 63.6% overall. Wilson had a 19-point, 14-rebound effort. Gray approached his own double-double with 10 points and seven assists, threading needles invisible to everyone else. And newly crowned Sixth Player of the Year, Tiffany Hayes, contributed 11 crucial points off the bench.
These are the Aces who have won two championships, and two hours before kickoff, Hammon said he expected them to show up “any minute now.” At that point, they came out in full force from the jump at the Michelob Ultra Arena’s 25th consecutive sell-out.
“Everything was really good with everyone,” Hammon said afterward. “I thought that was probably our most complete game of the season.”
For the first time in this series, Wilson established his presence early with a jumper after a block by Gray that opened the game. He added a basket and a three-pointer in the first three minutes of the game. Young took over, answered a Liberty 3-pointer and handed the keys to Gray, who scored seven of his 10 in the first half.
Hammon sent a message to Gray privately and publicly after Game 1, telling reporters that the point guard needs to “take her matchup personally” and not let Betnijah Laney-Hamilton “get up and hit you.” Gray was held to four points and one assist in Game 1 and built on his 14 points and seven assists in Game 2. He quickly passed Liberty’s defensive star midway through the second game of Game 3 and passed her to a rolling Wilson to pile up paint spots that had been difficult for them to find previously.
Still, the Aces and Liberty remained in a tug-of-war throughout the first half with 18 lead changes and eight ties at the 2:55 mark. The Aces held the space and led 52-49 at halftime. No team led by more than four and almost all categories were almost stagnant.
However, it was all Aces.
“Even though we were only down by three in the first half, we just didn’t feel good,” Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello said. “I thought that’s not how we play.”
In the third quarter things didn’t feel any better for the Sea Foam faithful. Wilson hit a jumper off a pass from Young, Young hit a 3-pointer, Plum flicked a layup and Gray hit his own 3-pointer to speed the frame to 21-6 that closed the door on a possible sweep. Liberty did not score from the 8:02 mark (Aces led 57-54) until 26.2 seconds remained (73-55).
“We were so focused on defense (and) rebounding,” Gray said. “We were intentional on that end of the court. When we’re able to do that and hold a team like that to six points in a third quarter. “They have scorers there, so being able to do that was key.”
Liberty’s top scorer almost ended the night without scoring. Sabrina Ionescu did not score until a technical free throw in the 9th minute of the fourth quarter. His only basket in seven attempts was a 3-pointer at 8:08. Hammon wanted his team to earn at least a C-plus protecting the Liberty’s most improved superstar.
When they needed it most, the team earned an A-plus. Brondello attributed his urgency to giving Ionescu little room to operate. Gray said they succeeded in their attention to detail after allowing too many layups in each of the first two games. The Aces won the paint, 42-28, including 20-10 in the second half.
Ionescu scored fewer than 10 points twice this season, both in limited minutes. Breanna Stewart couldn’t accomplish much with 19 points. She and Brondello said before the game that it would be the hardest to finish against a team willing to give the Liberty everything to stay alive.
“They’re going to be aggressive, they’re going to use their fans, they’re going to take advantage of the momentum behind them,” Stewart said after the game. “And I don’t think we came prepared for all that. We didn’t come and accept the hard things. Because this shit ain’t easy. And we saw it tonight.”
Jonquel Jones was forced to the bench in the last four minutes of the first half for three fouls and did not end with the double-double goal that the team always has for her. He had 11 points and six rebounds. Leonie Fiebich scored 10 points, and Courtney Vandersloot, who drew a rare technical shout from a referee following a travel call during the third quarter of Liberty’s drought, added nine off the bench.
“They went out and did what they were supposed to do,” Brondello said. “Now this is how we come back on Sunday.”