Aces and Liberty set to meet in the WNBA semifinals after playing for the title last year

NEW YORK — The Las Vegas Aces and New York Liberty met for the title last season. Now they are playing in the postseason one round earlier, vying for the opportunity to reach the WNBA Finals.

The Liberty have said they are using last season’s loss as motivation this year, but aren’t dwelling on the defeat in four games.

“We’ve got some unfinished business,” New York guard Sabrina Ionescu said. “We’re going to play our best basketball because we’ve got a lot of basketball left in us.”

The Aces were only the No. 4 seed but have been playing a lot better over the last month, winning nine of 10 heading into the postseason and sweeping Seattle in the first round.

The lone loss in that stretch came against New York, but league MVP A’ja Wilson didn’t play in that contest while she was resting her foot. The Aces rallied from a 20-point deficit in that contest to almost stun the Liberty.

Neither team is taking much from that game.

This is the first time in the history of the league that the finals participants met in the semifinals. It wasn’t possible until 2016, when the league changed its format to go to the top eight teams regardless of conference affiliation making the postseason.

“Obviously the goal isn’t just to win in the semifinals, so that’s something that’s I think kind of weird because we’re in a rematch of the final series, which is a little bit unheard of,” Ionescu said. “This is a team we have to get through in order to get to a finals again.”

Minnesota and Los Angeles played in the 2018 opening round after meeting in the finals the year before. The Lynx won the title in 2017 but lost to the Sparks in 2018.

Here are a few things to look for in the series:

Wilson and Breanna Stewart have been friendly off the court for years, playing together with USA Basketball at the Olympics and World Championship level. Stewart won the MVP last year and Wilson raised her game this season, breaking the single-season record for scoring average as well as becoming the first player to score more than 1,000 points in a season. Whichever one of the two has a more dominant series should help her team advance.

Liberty players have said all season that they are more connected this year after playing as a unit last season for the first time. New York added rookie Leonie Fiebich to the mix and she was stellar throughout the regular season. The 6-foot-4 wing gives New York more size and shooting. Las Vegas added Tiffany Hayes in the middle of the season, convincing her to come out of retirement. She earned the AP’s Sixth Woman of the Year honors.

New York captured the No. 1 seed this year and will play the first two games at home in the best-of-five series. Last season in the WNBA Finals, the Liberty had to go to Las Vegas and returned home facing elimination. New York has had a boisterous crowd all season at home and games have become a place to be for some celebrities.

The WNBA delivered its most-watched regular season since 2000 and had the highest attendance in 22 years. The league averaged 9,807 fans, up 48% from last season. The Fever led the way with a single-season record 340,715 fans coming to home games. The Indiana-Connecticut series clinching game for the Sun averaged 2.5 million viewers, making it the most-watched WNBA game ever on cable. The second game of the doubleheader that saw Minnesota beat Phoenix had 1.2 million viewers on average.

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AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball