Liberty lose Game 4 crusher as Aces win back-to-back WNBA titles
They started the season as the WNBA’s new superteam. They ended it Wednesday night in super disappointment.
The Liberty’s hope for a ticket back to Las Vegas and a decisive Game 5 on Friday night turned into a crushing 70-69 loss in Game 4 to a depleted Aces squad.
Even without point guard Chelsea Gray and center Kiah Stokes, the Aces still managed to earn back-to-back titles — the WNBA’s first repeat champs in 21 years — as they rallied from a 12-point second-half deficit.
And the Liberty superteam came up short when Courtney Vandersloot’s last-second 3-pointer was off the mark.
“That would have been nice to go play Game 5 and then lay it all out on the table. But you know what, credit to Vegas. They were down and they found a way,” Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said. “We fought, but it wasn’t our best game today and so it’ll be a hard one to learn from.”
This offseason, the Liberty brought in Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones and Courtney Vandersloot (who had a combined 13 All-Star appearances and two MVPs among them) to go with incumbent stars Sabrina Ionescu and Betnijah Laney.
But it wasn’t enough to knock off the defending champions.
“We knew what their game plan was going to be to like chuck it up and make it difficult and that’s exactly what happened,” Stewart said. “Couldn’t get anything to drop and I mean, credit to Vegas. They played well, but we wanted to, obviously, push it to Game 5.”
“We just didn’t have it tonight. Vegas really exploited us,” Brondello said.
A’ja Wilson, who was named Finals MVP, led the Aces with 24 points and 16 rebounds, followed by Jackie Young and Cayla George with 16 and 11 points, respectively, in front of raucous crowd of 16, 851 that included celebrities Sue Bird, Jason Sudeikis, Nate Burleson, Issa Rae and Fat Joe.
Prior to the Game 4, Aces head coach Becky Hammon admitted she was pulling everything from her sleeve to have a chance to prevent the Liberty from tying the best-of-five series.
“We’re going to be throwing the kitchen sink at ’em. See what sticks,” Hammon said. “See what works. I don’t know. We’re doing some stuff we’ve never done.”
And it paid off.
A physical game was key for the Aces, which was evident from the start.
They limited Jones and Stewart, who were the difference-makers in Game 3, to a combined 16 points.
Jones finished 3-for-8 from the field while Stewart, the WNBA regular-season MVP, was a dismal 3-for-17. The Aces dominated the paint with 44 points to the Liberty’s 24.
The Liberty were up 39-30 at the half and 42-30 after Ionescu hit a 3, but they struggled from there, scoring just 14 points in an uninspired third quarter.
The Aces closed the third on an 11-0 run to take a two-point lead into the fourth quarter.
“I thought we played too fast,” Brondello said of the third quarter. “They got the momentum and we didn’t have high-percentage shots and we missed obviously a lot of shots in that time, too.”
The Aces’ lead quickly grew to 60-53, but the Liberty clawed back.
The home team found a spark to test the Aces. Laney took an aggressive drive to add two points, and on the following possession, Ionescu made a deep 3 to get the Liberty within two.
Laney later found Vandersloot alone underneath the basket to tie it at 62-62 with under five minutes to play.
The Aces again built a six-point lead with two minutes left. But the Liberty made one last run.
Vandersloot delivered with a 3-point shot, got a steal off of Kelsey Plum, and found Ionescu for a jumper to get the Liberty within one point with 41.7 seconds left.
The Liberty forced a miss by Wilson and had the ball in their hands, down one, with 8.8 seconds left. ]Vandersloot missed a tough-angle 3-pointer at the buzzer, however, ending the Liberty season in heartbreak.
“I got the ball deep, late,” Vandersloot said. “Just trying to get it up on the rim, hoping for it to go in or an offensive rebound. Just didn’t have enough time.”
The Liberty came up short after an impressive offseason of recruitment.
A Finals appearance and championship were expected, but Las Vegas’ level of experience couldn’t be denied and the Aces closed the door on the Liberty until next season.
“In the end, I’m proud of this group of what we accomplished and how we have come together with a totally new group and try and build the chemistry and the togetherness,” Brondello said. “They committed to what we wanted to do, and we’ve got to take it as a learning experience now as we move forward and remember how it feels and use it as motivation.”
