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Aces starters Chelsea Gray and Kiah Stokes out for Game 4 of WNBA Finals vs. Liberty – USA TODAY
The Las Vegas Aces are one victory away from winning back-to-back WNBA titles, but the defending champions are down two more starters.
Aces guard Chelsea Gray, the 2022 Finals MVP, and center Kiah Stokes will be out for Wednesday’s Game 4 of the WNBA Finals due to foot injuries, head coach Becky Hammon confirmed Tuesday. Both Gray and Stokes were wearing walking boots and using crutches at practice on Tuesday.
“I’m bummed for Chelsea & Kiah, obviously,” said Hammon, whose Aces are up 2-1 over the New York Liberty heading into Game 4 in Brooklyn. “It’s a big blow (amid) big moments for them and to not be able to be out there, that’s a killer as a competitor to be sidelined by an injury. But it is what it is. You got to go and just play.”
WNBA Finals: How we got here: Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3
Gray injured her left foot during the fourth quarter of the Aces’ 87-73 loss to the Liberty in Game 3 on Sunday. She was in visible pain on the bench before she hopped to the locker room, avoiding putting any pressure on her left foot. Gray, who is averaging 15 points, five rebounds and 7.3 assists in the 2023 WNBA Finals, said the “timing (stinks).”
“As a competitor, obviously I want to play,” Gray told reporters. “You get to the Finals, and you don’t (get) this time back. It sucks in that way but I’m excited still to win a championship.”
Stokes, who is averaging 2.6 points, 6.6 rebounds and two assists in the 2023 WNBA Finals, said she doesn’t know exactly when she injured herself, but “woke up and my foot was hurting.”
The Aces are also without star forward Candace Parker, who was ruled out the remainder of the season after undergoing surgery to repair a foot fracture in July, and guard Riquna Williams, who was arrested on domestic battery charges in July.
The Aces will look to replace Gray and Stokes with reserves Sydney Colson and Cayla George. Gray said Las Vegas, a team that has faced much adversity this season, will have to win the title “by committee,” despite averaging only 8.6 bench points in the 2023 WNBA Finals.
“If we talk about the playoffs, we haven’t been whole in a long time,” Gray said. “Candace (Parker) has been out. People have been out. We haven’t had a full and whole roster that we started off with since the beginning. Kind of built for this moment.”
But Hammon said it will be tough to replace Gray. “We lost our general… I don’t think there’s any one person that’s going to step up and fill her shoes.”
The Aces went up 2-0 over the Liberty after winning Game 1 and Game 2 in dominant fashion in Las Vegas. The Liberty took Game 3 at home and Game 4 is scheduled for Wednesday night in Brooklyn. Game 5, if necessary, will take place on Friday back in Las Vegas.
The Aces are looking to become the first team since the Los Angeles Sparks in 2001 and 2002 to win back-to-back WNBA titles. The Liberty are vying for the franchise’s first WNBA championship. No team has ever come back from an 0-2 deficit in a best-of-five Finals series in WNBA history.
