WNBA playoffs: 3 things to know for the Aces-Liberty semifinals

It’s the inevitable clash of super teams again. Except that the postseason duel that was expected all year will be played in the semifinals.

The No. 1 New York Liberty and No. 4 Las Vegas Aces will conclude their best-of-five WNBA semifinal series at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Sunday (3 p.m. ET, ABC). Each franchise returns the starting five from the 2023 WNBA Finals, which Vegas won in four games at Barclays. And teams’ front offices filled stronger, deeper benches to make history.

The Aces are aiming for a three-peat, the first time in WNBA history when the Houston Comets won the league’s first four titles. The Liberty are still seeking their first championship after coming away empty-handed from five Finals appearances. They lost three of them to the Comets.

Liberty general manager Jonathan Kolb, the 2023 Manager of the Year, added All-Stars Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones and Courtney Vandersloot ahead of the 2023 season to create the league’s first superteam via free agency. It reached the franchise’s first Finals since 2002, but fell in a heartbreaking Game 4 that the Liberty could have won on its final possession.

“It’s hard to win in your first year when you’re putting a team together,” Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello said before the Commissioner’s Cup that Liberty hosted on Long Island in June. “We did pretty well, but I think you can see the value of just spending more time together (and how we continue to grow). We have faced adversity, players have had to miss and we continue to build that chemistry.”

The Aces are a homegrown team with three consecutive No. 1 draft picks in Kelsey Plum, A’ja Wilson and Jackie Young. Plum, who cited the Liberty’s lack of chemistry as a key reason the Aces secured the 2023 title, said the Liberty improved this week.

“New York is much better than last year. Just plain and simple,” Plum said. “They are bigger, they shoot the ball from a better distance. When you look at the line, pound for pound individually, they are all better basketball players.”

They also play with the pain of a final defeat on their minds. Brondello and the team called it a scar that will heal and make them stronger. You will need it to defeat the powerful Aces.

“They were the best team all year,” Aces head coach Becky Hammon said. “They played like a team that was pissed, with a lead. And we worked our way there. I feel like we probably got our lead back. “I don’t think we’re the same team New York saw (this season).

Here are 3 things you need to know for the series:

These regular season results are misleading

Yes, the Liberty won the regular season series 3-0. But none of these games are really indicative of this rematch.

Two veteran point guards missed the Liberty’s 90-82 win in Las Vegas on June 15. Chelsea Gray of the Aces was still recovering from a foot injury she suffered in Game 3 of the WNBA Finals, and Vandersloot of the Liberty was absent for personal reasons.

Liberty winger and All-Defensive candidate Betnijah Laney-Hamilton (right knee) missed the second game, a 79-67 Liberty win on Aug. 17 in Las Vegas. It was the Aces’ first game after the All-Star/Olympic break, although they had the longest rest period of any team. Gray still didn’t look like herself at this point and the Aces were without six players at the break.

Newly-crowned MVP A’ja Wilson missed the last game two weeks ago, the only one played at Barclays. The Liberty won 75-71 by holding off a furious comeback from the Aces. Las Vegas won the fourth game 20-11, sparking fears in New York about a possible postseason meeting.

Both teams enter this game fully healthy and Gray looks set to be in the playoffs just in time for the Aces.

The Battle of the MVPs

The series is rich with No. 1 draft picks and MVP candidates. The headliners are, of course, Wilson and Stewart after the duo led Team USA to a gold medal in Paris last month. They are two of the greatest players in the world and will compete against each other throughout the series.

Wilson tore up the record books en route to one of the best seasons in league history. Her 26.9 points per game is a league record and she averaged a double-double with 11.9 rebounds, earning her third MVP last week. In a year of dominant scoring, their 21 and 24 points in games against New York were nothing to write home about. She was particularly motivated in the last Finals after an MVP voter placed her fourth, putting her behind Stewart and Suns forward Alyssa Thomas in the vote count.

Stewart won the Cup for the second time last season, but didn’t have a good postseason and that hurt the Liberty. It was the first time she did not participate in the playoffs wearing a Seattle Storm uniform and the first time she lost in the finals of an NCAA or WNBA postseason. Her scoring output dropped 20% in the playoffs, from 23 to 18.4 points per game, and she averaged 16.3 points in the Finals against the Aces. The majority of that was a slump in 3-point range (17.6%). Since the All-Star/Olympic break, she has hit 40% from 3, an increase from the 22.9% slump that began at the start of the season.

Sabrina Ionescu placed sixth in the MVP voting this year, third behind teammate Stewart. Their improved play has put the Liberty in a better position than last season, and they got back into the swing of things after their own post-break slump from the 3-point line against Atlanta. Liberty center Jonquel Jones, the Sun’s 2021 MVP, will be in demand for big double-double games. The Aces’ Gray, Young and Plum all received MVP votes, and Hammon said the team is doing the same thing as their guards.

The defense will prove the difference

The defense stood out for the Aces last season, leading them to a decisive win in Game 4 despite Gray and center Kiah Stokes both sitting on the bench due to injuries. Hammon said after the festivities that she “thought out a defense” and that her group “made the crap out of it.”

That side of the ball has been more problematic for Las Vegas this year, giving New York an advantage, although Hammon said she has been confident in her defense of late. The Liberty ranked third in defensive rating and twice held the Aces to at least 15 points below their season average of 86.4 points per game. In the 2023 Finals, the Aces surpassed their point average of 92.8 from the first two games of the WNBA Finals (99 and 104 points).

Leonie Fiebich, a 6-foot-10 forward in the Spanish League and 2024 All-EuroLeague First Team selection, moved into the starting lineup in the first round against Atlanta when Vandersloot came off the bench. It adds more size (Fiebich is 6-foot-1 to Vandersloot’s 5-8) on the perimeter alongside All-Defensive candidate Betnijah Laney-Hamilton (6-foot-1) to slow the Aces’ high-scoring guard trio.