Liberty 94, Aces 85: Muscle memory
In under a month, the Liberty beating the Aces has gone from far-out to familiar
Between August 7, 2022 and August 5, 2023, the Las Vegas Aces played 40 games that counted for something – regular season and playoffs. They won 36 of them, or 90%. That’s a better winning percentage than the 1996 Chicago Bulls or 2016 Golden State Warriors. It’d tie the 1998 Houston Comets for the best in WNBA history, and those Comets did it over 30 games and two months. The Aces did it over 40 and 12.
On August 6, 2023, the Aces met the New York Liberty at the Barclays Center, the first of four meetings in three weeks. The Liberty have won three of those meetings, including last night’s 94-85 win, again at Barclays. New York moved to a game back of Las Vegas in the loss column for the best record in the league. With the season series tied 2-2, the next tiebreaker is record against winning teams. The Aces are 7-4 in that category, the Liberty 6-3 with games left against the Connecticut Sun and Dallas Wings, the only two teams outside the superpowers with a winning record; Minnesota and Washington could get there before the season ends and complicate the math further.
Last night’s win came in front of the biggest crowd in the Liberty’s history at Barclays, with 11,615 in attendance. Those who came to witness the passing of the torch were discomforted in the early going, as power rarely concedes power. The Aces raced out to an early nine-point lead, thanks to scoring ostinato A’ja Wilson and some quick-hitting staccato care of Jackie Young. But the Liberty stormed back behind 18 first-quarter points from their starting backcourt. Sabrina Ionescu and Courtney Vandersloot combined for four 3s in the opening frame; along with reserve guard Marine Johannés, they put together a portfolio of delicious drives and finishes.
The Aces rank second in the W in 2-pointers, 3-pointers and free throws made. The Liberty are 11th in twos and ninth in free throws, but first from deep; those long bombs are their biggest weapon against Becky Hammon’s team. So you know Vegas was looking to cut down on the disparity from distance, which they did: the Liberty only made one more three last night. Their guards would have to present a more diversified danger, of which they were conscious, canning nine of 11 shots from 2-point range. If you keep absorbing body shots, what hope is there of surviving the uppercuts?
The rest of the game was formality; New York led by as many as 19, with Las Vegas trailing by double-digits most of the night. When considering the Aces’ August swoon, remember what preceded it: in the last week of July, Vegas star Candace Parker underwent foot surgery. Her team was 16-2 in the games she played before the operation; any team, no matter how loaded, will suffer after the loss of an MVP-level starter. Parker’s surgery came shortly after New York’s Jonquel Jones started looking like herself after spending most of this calendar year recovering from a stress reaction in her left foot from last year. Even for these two teams, with multiple MVPs and All-Stars, losing one as your foe gains one is a seismic sea change; Liberty coach Sandy Brondello acknowledged how the absence of Parker lets the Lib gamble more on defense.
But the Liberty can’t control what happens to other teams and players. Their job is to win it all, eventually, sooner than later and maybe even this season. For most of the year, particular before Parker’s setback, it seemed their learning curve might make them runners-up to Sin City’s winning machine. Three wins in one month against a team that’d lost four over a year changes things. Success builds muscle memory and New York has banked a nice nest egg to fall back on should these teams meet in the Finals. While they’re still building their legacy with the Liberty, a number of these players have tasted titles before, and not only in the WNBA: Jones, Breanna Stewart and Courtney Vandersloot played and won together for Russia’s UMMC Ekaterinburg. So while they’re trying to build something new now, there’s already some structure in place.
Two of New York’s next three games are against winning clubs, as they’ll host Connecticut and visit Dallas. The season finale is against Washington, who may or may not have a winning record by then; if they do, that game could help determine whether the Liberty or Aces finish as the league’s top seed, meaning homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs. If Parker isn’t back and in form, it might not matter where the teams meet – not the way the Liberty are rolling.
