No Chelsea Gray, the floor general and last year’s WNBA Finals MVP. No Kiah Stokes, starting center.
All season depth had been a concern for the defending champion Las Vegas Aces, and with the chance to close out another WNBA Finals when two starters were in street clothes on the bench.
Fortunately for Las Vegas, it still had A’Ja Wilson.
Wilson finished with 24 points, 16 rebounds and — along with Kelsea Plum and Jackie Young — keyed a gritty Aces win, 70-69, to close out the WNBA Finals.
The Aces are the 2023 WNBA champions and have become the first back-to-back champs since the Los Angeles Sparks 21 years ago. Wilson, deservedly, is the WNBA Finals MVP.
“We’ve been facing adversity all season, playing without different players…” said Alysha Clark, who was pushed into the starting lineup Wednesday due to injuries (quote via the AP). “We have some professional fighters. To weather the storm of everything we went through, to show up every single day. To be in this moment right now and do it together, it speaks volumes about us, our chemistry.”
In a back-and-forth game in front of a raucous Barclay’s Center crowd, the Aces were more composed and executed better down the stretch. For example, on the final play, the physical Las Vegas defense made it hard for New York to inbound the ball to Breanna Stewart, then the Aces’ Young made a timely double to force Stewart to give it up, then hustled to contest Courtney Vandersloot‘s potential game-winning 3 from the corner.
For the fast-growing WNBA, this was exactly the kind of game it wanted to show off the intensity, drama and what the league can provide. It felt like a great playoff game, not always pretty but always hard-fought. This was a win for the league.
Early on, it looked like it could be a win for the Liberty and force a deciding Game 5. The Aces were sloppy with eight first-quarter turnovers, which had them down 10 after one.
Neither team shot well in the first half, but New York was 6-of-14 (42.9%) from 3 — three by Vandersloot — and that was the difference. The Aces kept it a one-point game until late in the first half, but Liberty closed the half on an 8-0 run (with two 3-pointers) to make it 39-30 at halftime.
Wilson took over in the third quarter, doing everything to give the Aces a chance — she scored nine straight points as part of a third quarter 23-12 run by the Aces to retake the lead by two.
That run extended into a 16-2 run that became part of the fourth quarter and Las Vegas led by as many as seven in the final frame.
However, the Liberty would not go quietly. They tied the game with 2:44 left on a Jonquel Jones offensive rebound and putback. That’s where the Aces championship poise took over. Young hit a driving layup, then the next time down drew the foul and hit two free throws. The next trip down it was Wilson in the paint, and the Aces were up six with 1:27 left.
The Liberty would not quit. Vandersloot hit another 3 (she finished with 19 points) and the next trip down Sabrina Ionescu drained the 15-foot pull-up at the free throw line, and it was a one-point game.
That one point proved to be the difference in one of the great WNBA Finals.
