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It comes a little earlier than some were anticipating, but revenge is in the cards for the New York Liberty.
Tuesday’s action on the WNBA playoff bracket set up a second-round showdown between the Liberty and Las Vegas Aces, one that will serve as a rematch of last season’s WNBA Finals. Both New York and Las Vegas secured first-round sweeps with their respective wins in the second game of their best-of-three sets: the top-seeded Liberty downed the Atlanta Dream 91-82 while the fourth-ranked Aces stomped Seattle 83-76.
The series is tentatively set to get underway on Sunday at Barclays Center at a time to be determined.
Coached by Liberty legend Becky Hammon, Las Vegas is the two-time defending WNBA champion. The Liberty were last season’s victims as the Aces took the best-of-five set in four games, including a 70-69 finale at Barclays Center that saw series MVP A’ja Wilson put up 24 points and 16 rebounds. Las Vegas won the game despite missing starters Chelsea Gray and Kiah Stokes.
The next showdown is packed to the brim with star talents, as it will feature the winners of the last five WNBA MVP awards: Wilson, who took home her third (2020, 2022, 2024) in unanimous fashion, will represent Las Vegas while Jonquel Jones (2021) and Breanna Stewart (2023) are on the metropolitan side.
The series also showcases six members of the United States’ gold medal-winning squad at the 2024 Paris Olympics: Wilson, Gray, Kelsey Plum, and Jackie Young are on Las Vegas’ side while the Liberty boast Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu, who is fresh off a brilliant 36-point showing in Tuesday’s win over Atlanta, which tied a franchise single-game postseason record.
While meaningless when it comes to the postseason ledger, the Liberty swept the three-game regular season set, becoming the first team to sweep the defending champions since the 2021 Chicago Sky, a team that featured current New Yorker Courtney Vandersloot and later went on to win the championship. Only one of that trio, the most recent get-together on Sept. 8, was held in Brooklyn.
Each game has been partly defined by stars missing in action: both Gray and Vandersloot missed the first showdown on June 15 (a 90-82 Liberty win in Las Vegas) while Betnijah Laney-Hamilton sat out of the second one just over two months later (a 79-67 triumph that clinched the Liberty a playoff spot).
The most recent get-together in Brooklyn missed an injured Wilson but nonetheless proved thrilling: New York led by as much as 20 but a furious Sin City comeback gave the Aces a late lead. Ionescu’s double with 43 seconds remaining proved to be the winner in a 75-71 win.
Though New York and Las Vegas are off until Sunday, the WNBA playoffs continue on Wednesday night with ongoing first-round action: the Minnesota Lynx and Connecticut Sun, seeded second and third respectively, can advance with Wednesday wins to set up their own semifinal tilt. Connecticut will face the Indiana Fever (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN) while Minnesota battles the Phoenix Mercury (9:30 p.m. ET, ESPN).
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