Sports
Las Vegas Aces can become first back-to-back WNBA champions since 2002 – The Washington Post
NEW YORK — The annoyance radiated off Chelsea Gray on Friday afternoon. She stood on the New York Liberty’s practice court in the belly of Barclays Center, rolled her eyes and shook her head, more than ready to join her Las Vegas Aces teammates. The WNBA’s “Point Gawd” didn’t even want to entertain the thought of the Aces being on the precipice of history.
“After the trophy, I’ll be able to do that,” she said.
The business is unfinished for the Aces, but they have a chance to make history Sunday afternoon when they face the Liberty in Game 3 of the WNBA Finals. A victory would give the Aces a three-game sweep and make them the first team to win back-to-back WNBA championships since the Los Angeles Sparks in 2001 and 2002 — and that’s just the start. A win also would make them the seventh team to go undefeated in the postseason and the first to go 8-0 in the playoffs.
Only two teams have won consecutive titles in the 27-year history of the league. The Houston Comets won the first four WNBA titles from 1997 to 2000 with Cynthia Cooper, Sheryl Swoopes and Tina Thompson, and three-time MVP Lisa Leslie helped the Sparks go back-to-back after that. Even the Minnesota Lynx teams that won four titles and made six Finals appearances between 2011 and 2017 were unable to secure two in a row.
Eight-time all-star Seimone Augustus, who won four rings with Minnesota, noted that every year is different and that winning a second straight title is often more difficult.
“People’s roles change, mind-sets, personalities,” Augustus said. “Success brings some things out of people, and some … could be good or bad. The very first year that you win, it’s like they see you, but they don’t see you. … The second year, you’re not a surprise. And so that expectation, the bull’s-eye that’s on your back, every arena that you step into, everybody is just shooting and gunning after you. And that’s a different feel than the feel that you had the year before. Can you endure that?”
Most of the Aces’ roster is the same as their 2022 championship team. Las Vegas was labeled a super team after the addition of two-time MVP Candace Parker and sixth player of the year Alysha Clark, but Parker played just 18 games before being having surgery to repair a fracture in her left foot. Still, Gray, who won a championship with the Sparks in 2016, said these Aces don’t remind her of any other team.
“Nah, man, this group is so different, even from last year,” Gray said. “Our chemistry is really good, and it’s just improving. I wouldn’t say it reminds me of another team. It’s different from last year. The vibe is different. A lot of personnel is the same, but the vibe is just different.”
The organization had single-digit wins in its last three years as the San Antonio Stars before it moved to Las Vegas before the 2018 season. From 2017 to 2019, it drafted Kelsey Plum, A’ja Wilson and Jackie Young No. 1 overall. Then the Aces were fortunate enough to lure Coach Becky Hammon from the NBA last season. The elite WNBA teams of the past had deep benches, but the Aces essentially use six players.
“That is the most unique situation that I’ve ever seen,” Augustus said. “They have one of the fastest paces in the league and only have six people. And that’s because they figured out who they are. They know where their spots are, who’s doing well, how they’re doing it. And on any given night, any player can step up. And that’s what makes this team so great.”
The Aces have won eight consecutive playoff games dating from Game 4 of the 2022 Finals, and a ninth would tie the WNBA record set by the 2001-02 Sparks and 2013-14 Lynx. They have won 11 straight games overall, and a 12th would match a franchise record set in 2012. Las Vegas has won by an average of 22.5 points during the Finals and handed the Liberty its first two consecutive losses of the season. The 38 points the Aces scored in the first quarter of Game 2 was the highest-scoring first quarter in Finals history, and their 31 total assists were the third most in a Finals game.
During the regular season, Wilson, Plum, Young and Gray became the first four teammates in league history to average 15 points or more, and the team’s offensive efficiency rating of 113.0 set a record. Hammon skipped over all other WNBA teams to find a comparison for her squad and went to the 2014 NBA champion San Antonio Spurs, who featured Hall of Famers Tim Duncan, Manu Ginóbili and Tony Parker. She actually had her team watch tape of those Spurs.
“At this point of the season, every play we try to run is scouted,” Hammon said. “If we try to run plays, their defense is pretty good. Our best offense has been no offense. Run, play out of the defense, play with pace, play with each other, cut, move the basketball. There’s no defense for it because you don’t know what we’re going to do, because we don’t know what you’re going to do. You do this; we do that. You do that; we do this. It’s just reading and playing a constant little game of chess of what are they doing and what’s available.”
Wilson, Plum, Gray, Young and Clark are under contract for 2024 as the Aces attempt to build a dynasty. Clark is the oldest of the group at 36, and Gray is 31. The three No. 1 picks are under 30, and Wilson is firmly in her prime at 27 after averaging career highs in points (22.8), rebounds (9.5) and blocks (2.2). She became the first player in WNBA history to post three consecutive 30-plus-point postseason games this year. With her at the helm, the Aces are set to be contenders for the foreseeable future, and Hammon is still upset that Wilson wasn’t named this year’s regular season MVP.
“This lady’s been ridiculous, and she’s heard it all,” Hammon said. “Third in MVP voting [behind New York’s Breanna Stewart and Connecticut’s Alyssa Thomas]. Okay. Rest on that. A joke. She’s been off the charts efficient. And I love [Stewart]. … But her efficiency on both ends, it’s been ridiculous.”
The Liberty isn’t trying to go out like this. New York was barely competitive in Game 2, but it also came into the series with championship aspirations as a super team after adding MVPs in Stewart and Jonquel Jones and five-time all-star Courtney Vandersloot. During her meeting with the media, Stewart looked dazed after the Game 2 loss. And anger could be felt at Friday’s practice with the Liberty on the verge of elimination.
“We know what’s at stake,” Coach Sandy Brondello said. “We’re all disappointed, angry, embarrassed with how we played. I think we had all those emotions, but it’s about action now, not emotion. It’s about what you can do, not how you feel. No f—ing feelings anymore. For me, it’s just compete. Compete and do it together.”
The Aces have been adamant about keeping the focus small and not looking ahead despite being on the cusp of rare accomplishments. But a victory Sunday would put them among the greatest in WNBA history.
