Sabrina Ionescu And Breanna Stewart Led The Liberty To A Game 1 Win Over The Aces

All year, we have hoped that we would get a playoff rematch of last year’s WNBA Finals between the New York Liberty and Las Vegas Aces. New York has looked like a team on a mission this year, earning the WNBA’s top seed during the regular season, but to erase the bitterness of how last year ended, they needed to exact some revenge on Vegas.

While it wasn’t a Finals showdown as many expected coming into the year, the two teams squared off in Game 1 of their semifinals series on Sunday afternoon in Brooklyn, and the Liberty sent a clear message that this year is going to be, at the very least, an even bigger challenge. The Liberty came out hot, with Breanna Stewart leading the way as they took a 28-21 lead after the first quarter, and by the mid-third they had extended that advantage to 18 points. Vegas would chip away to cut the deficit back to single digits, with Kelsey Plum leading the charge, but ultimately New York cruised to an 87-77 win.

Stewart finished the game with 34 points as she was simply dominant as a scorer, going 12-of-19 from the field and getting to her spots with ease.

Providing support for Stewie was Sabrina Ionescu, who came up with some big shots in the fourth quarter to keep the Aces at arm’s length as she went for 21 points on 9-of-16 shooting.

For the Aces, they got 24 points from Plum — including 12 in the third — as she did everything she could to spark a run, including getting into it with Spike Lee who was seated courtside.

However, the Aces just didn’t have enough on either end on Sunday to really threaten the Liberty. A’ja Wilson added 21 points and Jackie Young had 17, but they could not get the stops needed to fully reel in New York, who shot 50 percent from the field and 42 percent from three as a team in the win. The question going into Game 2 on Tuesday night is what can the Aces do to create some problems for this Liberty offense and keep them out of rhythm. The offense certainly could be a bit better for Las Vegas (28 percent from three isn’t cutting it), but New York seemed able to get a good shot just about whenever they wanted it, which is not usually what happens to this Aces defense. Figuring out how to disrupt Ionescu and Stewart and make them work harder to get to their spots is a must for Vegas to even this series up before it shifts West, while the Liberty will be hoping to carry this same feeling into Tuesday night.