The New York Liberty completed the regular-season series sweep of the reigning champion Las Vegas Aces on Sunday with a thrilling 75-71 victory in a contest that was reminiscent in some ways of Game 4 of the 2023 WNBA Finals. This time, though, the Liberty came away with the win and moved one step closer to clinching the No. 1 seed.
“I think we just continue to build confidence,” Breanna Stewart said. “Obvoiusly we’re happy to have [swept the Aces] this season, but we know the playoffs is a whole different animal.”
The last Finals rematch of the season lost some luster shortly before tip off when MVP favorite A’ja Wilson was ruled out due to an ankle injury. While the Aces got off to a great start without their best player, they soon lost their way and the Liberty built a 20-point lead. During the third quarter, the broadcast was openly wondering whether either coach would play their starters in the fourth, or use the opportunity to get them some extra rest.
And then, suddenly, everything flipped.
The Aces started to knock down some 3-pointers, the Liberty went ice cold and all of a sudden the reigning champions had a one-point lead with less than two minutes to play after Sydney Colson hit a triple. From the 2:35 mark of the third quarter to the 1:57 mark of the fourth, the Aces outscored the Liberty 28-7. During that stretch, New York shot 3-of-16 — including 10 consecutive misses — and turned it over seven times.
That turned out to be as far as the Aces would get. Colson’s 3 was the last time they would score in the game. The Liberty didn’t exactly play great themselves down the stretch, with a number of missed free throws sticking out, but they found a way to get the job done. Sabrina Ionescu’s bucket with 43 seconds left put them ahead for good, and they came up with a huge stop on Jackie Young in the closing seconds to seal the win.
“It’s a long game, just gotta stick with it,” said Ionescu, who shot 6-of-21 en route to 14 points. “Being able to create for my teammates, obviously [Stewart] had a hell of a game and continued to chip away and grind this one out.”
The Liberty have now won three games in a row to improve to 29-6, and have a chance to break the franchise’s single-season win record of 32, which they set last summer.
They have a three-game lead over the Minnesota Lynx in the race for the top spot, with five games to play for both clubs. It would take a big collapse at this point for the Liberty to miss out on the No. 1 seed, but they do still have one game left with the Lynx, which will determine the tiebreaker between the clubs, so there is work to do.
