WNBA Playoffs: The real Aces finally show up to make a statement – and make a series out of it

LAS VEGAS – Becky Hammon waited and believed in this version of the Las Vegas Aces. The two-time champions are at their best when their guard trio around three-time MVP A’ja Wilson is firing on all cylinders. That version was missing for most of the season, and it certainly didn’t appear in the first two semifinal games in Brooklyn.

“Man, we’ve been waiting for this,” Chelsea Gray said after masterfully returning the Aces’ offense to that version of itself.

Not only were the Aces on the brink of elimination, they went all out in a dominant 95-81 home win on Friday to keep their season and hopes of going three-peat alive. It was a close contest in the third quarter, which the Aces won 21-6. The Liberty lead the series 2-1 and will try to secure a spot in the finals on Sunday (3 p.m. ET, ABC).

Jackie Young led all scorers with 24 points and 4 3-pointers. Kelsey Plum threw 20 hits and shot 63.6% overall. Wilson finished with 19 points and 14 rebounds. Gray approached her own double-double with 10 points and seven assists, threading needles invisible to everyone else. And newly-crowned Sixth Player of the Year Tiffany Hayes contributed 11 crucial points off the bench.

These are the Aces, who have won two championships, and with two hours to go, Hammon said she expected them to show up “any time.” As if on cue, they came out with full force at the Michelob Ultra Arena, which was sold out for the 25th consecutive year.

“Everything was really right for everyone,” Hammon said afterwards. “I thought it was probably our most complete game of the season.”

For the first time in the series, Wilson established himself early with a turnaround jumper after a game-opening block from Gray. She added a pull-up bucket and a 3-pointer within the first three minutes of the game. Young took over, answering a Liberty 3 and handing the keys to Gray, who scored seven of her 10 points in the first half.

Hammon privately and publicly sent Gray a message after Game 1, telling reporters that the point guard needed to “take her matchup personally” and not let Betnijah Laney-Hamilton “stand up and beat you up.” Gray was limited to four points and one assist in Game 1 and extended her 14 points and seven assists in Game 2. Midway through the second half of Game 3, they raced past the Liberty’s all-defensive star and passed past him to a rolling Wilson, picking up paint points they previously had difficulty finding.

Still, the Aces and Liberty remained locked in a back-and-forth game throughout the first half, with 18 lead changes and eight ties by the 2:55 mark. The Aces held their own and led 52-49 at halftime. No team had a lead of more than four and almost every category was almost deadlocked.

Still, they were only aces.

“Even though we were only down by three points in the first half, it just didn’t feel good,” Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello said. “It was like that’s not how we play.”

Things didn’t feel any better for the Sea Foam faithful in the third quarter. Wilson hit a jumper on a feed from Young, Young dropped a 3, Plum finger-rolled in a layup and Gray fired her own 3 to race into the 21-6 frame, opening the door on a potential sweep lock. The Liberty didn’t score from the 8:02 mark (Aces led 57-54) until 26.2 seconds remained (73-55).

“We were just so into it defensively (and rebounding),” Gray said. “We were intentional on that end of the floor. If we can do that and get a team like that to six points in the third quarter. They have scorers there, so being able to do that was crucial.”

The Liberty’s leading scorer almost ended the night without a basket. Sabrina Ionescu only scored after a technical free throw in the 9th minute of the fourth quarter. Her only basket in seven attempts was a 3-pointer at 8:08. Hammon wanted her team to get at least a C-plus to guard the Liberty’s most improved superstar.

When they needed it most, the team delivered an A-plus. Brondello acknowledged their urgency and gave Ionescu little room to maneuver. Gray said they were successful with their attention to detail after missing too many layups in each of the first two games. The Aces won the game 42-28, including 20-10 in the second half.

Ionescu scored fewer than 10 points twice this season, both in limited minutes. Breanna Stewart herself couldn’t do much with 19 points. She and Brondello each said before the game that the hardest part would be against a team willing to throw everything at the Liberty to stay alive.

“They’re going to be aggressive, they’re going to use their fans, they’re going to use the momentum behind them,” Stewart said after the game. “And I think we were unprepared for all of this. We did not come to take on the difficult things. Because this shit ain’t easy. And that’s what we saw tonight.”

Jonquel Jones was benched for three fouls in the final four minutes of the first half and ultimately failed to score the double-double the team always expects. She had 11 points and six rebounds. Leonie Fiebich had 10 points, and Courtney Vandersloot, who uncharacteristically technical yelled at a referee after a travel call during Liberty’s third-quarter drought, contributed nine points off the bench.

“They came out and did what they were supposed to do,” Brondello said. “So we’ll be back on Sunday.”