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Aces destroy Liberty, 104-76, to take a commanding 2-0 WNBA Finals lead – Nets Daily
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New York suffers two blowouts in one, get ran off the floor in Las Vegas to go down 0-2 in WNBA Finals.
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“We weren’t happy with just the simple act of just, setting a great screen, you know, hand pressure. Just little things that we work on day in, day out, and if you forget to do them, it really affects the game.”
That’s what Head Coach Sandy Brondello took away from the New York Liberty’s 99-82 Game 1 loss to the Las Vegas Aces, a historically great team that can take an inch and turn it into a mile. The Liberty lead 49-46 after one half of Game 1, but let go off the rope in the second half and watched the Aces put the game away by the middle of the fourth quarter.
One can only imagine Brondello’s reaction to the beginning of Game 2 on Wednesday night, when the Aces built a monster 38-19 lead after the first quarter. Two full days of preparation couldn’t save the Liberty from getting doubled up after just ten minutes of play, an avalanche where all five Vegas starters hit a 3-pointer. Only the Phoenix Mercury, in 2007, had ever accomplished such a feat in a WNBA Finals game, let alone a quarter:
KIAH ST KES
Get ’em on their feet, @kstokes41!#RaiseTheStakes // #WNBAFinals pic.twitter.com/AKOIHquygQ
Kiah Stokes, who had nailed four 3-pointers all year prior to Wednesday, her last one on August 22nd, was 2-of-2 from deep by halftime. ‘Nightmare fuel’ may not cover it for New York fans. A dream lies dying might.
And yet, while the Aces continued their torrid shot-making in the second-quarter…
omg Chelsea Gray…it just might not be the Liberty’s night: pic.twitter.com/1Q3QJEDgcx
…the Liberty clawed away at a 22-point deficit. More specifically, Jonquel Jones clawed.
Marine Johannès was the lone bright spot for New York in their Game 1 loss, throwing an inconsistent season of play in the trash to hit four ridiculous 3-pointers on the game’s biggest stage, even receiving a shoutout from LeBron James, Jones took that mantle in Game 2.
New York’s first offseason splash struggled through June, dealing with the after-effects of an offseason spent recovering from a stress reaction in her left foot. Jones, the 2021 MVP, even missed the All-Star game for the first time since 2018. Yet, after the break, she’s been at least a co-star to Breanna Stewart, if not the best player on the team outright.
Is it heresy to suggest Stewie, the freaking MVP, hasn’t been the best player on her own team since July? Maybe, but that’s how dominant Jones has been inside, warping the floor with a generational blend of size, strength, and mobility that is immune to an off-shooting night. And we saw it in the second quarter of Game 2.
Over those ten minutes, Jones scored 16 points, grabbed eight boards (six offensive!), and blocked two shots. 16/8 with two blocks in a quarter!
Jonquel Jones has 14/9 in 13 minutes. She is shooting 6-9, the rest of the team is 7-28. Just watching her has me tired: pic.twitter.com/78rM05mgjd
If any of her fellow starters showed up, the Liberty may have overcome the whole 22-point deficit in one bite. Instead, they once cut it to six, and trailed by an encouraging eight headed into halftime, 52-44. Hope, thanks to Jonquel Jones, was not lost.
Only for minute, though. The Aces won the third quarter 28-13, and despite all of New York’s hard work in the second quarter, Vegas closed the third with their largest lead of the game. Liberty fans got to experience two blowouts for the price of one.
Las Vegas became the first-ever team to feature three 20-point scorers in back-to-back playoff games — on Wednesday, A’ja Wilson, who put up 26 and 15 while cashing a barrage of middies, was joined by Jackie Young and Kelsey Plum, who scored 24 and 23 respectively, scoring from everywhere on the court.
Matched up with Sabrina Ionescu and Courtney Vandersloot, Young and Plum had their way for the second Finals game in a row, as the backcourt disparity continued to be a factor. Vandersloot was worryingly bad, not just invisible, like Ionescu, but actively harming the Liberty’s chances, often ignoring the basket and turning it over twice. Ionescu ‘just’ shot poorly, going 2-10 to score ten points.
That doesn’t even cover Chelsea Gray, whose 14 points felt like 40 thanks to a bombardment of H-O-R-S-E cheat codes. Oh, and she dished 11 assists, despite admirable defensive coverage from Betnijah Laney.
“Those girls hooped today. Just, hooped,” said Becky Hammon, flatly. She later added, “They were good tonight. They don’t leave me speechless very often, but they executed defensively, offensively, shared it, everything we’ve been asking them to do.”
Laney and Stewart did what they could to support Jones in the front-court, but neither shot well enough (a combined 10-32) to overcome problems that needed more fixes than just improved shooting.
So, did the Liberty willingly lay down on the tracks or was the Vegas locomotive unavoidable? Sandy Brondello doesn’t have the answer either: “We’re disappointed, very disappointed because we’re a way better team what we showed. So I don’t know. Is it because of our opponent? Possibly. But we’re better, we’re better than this.”
Hammon, a notoriously relentless coach, had nothing but praise for her squad after the game, saying, “They’re the real deal. They’re the real deal. You could really go down the whole list, they’re competitiveness and their fight for each other. They’re a real team, they’re a real team.”
Where do the New York Liberty go from here? Making some more 3-pointers would be a start, as the league’s deadliest team from deep shot just 22.9% on Wednesday, missing open looks and settling for tough ones as well. Really, though, all areas of the game need improvement if the sea foam are going to make a legitimate run at their first title in franchise history.
It’s not just that they’re down 2-0 to an all-time great opponent — after all, New York hasn’t even gotten a chance to play on their home court yet. Yet, following the Game 2 drubbing on Wednesday night, the Liberty are in the deepest hole possible, feeling further away from a championship than they have in a long time.
Final score: Las Vegas 104, New York 76.
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