WNBA Finals Preview: Aces, Liberty clash in high stakes series

It's a tale of two franchises in this year's WNBA Finals. The Las Vegas Aces are making their third Finals appearance in four years, looking to defend their 2022 title while the New York Liberty are 0-4 in the Finals and are making their first appearance since 2002.

What's been the difference maker for the Liberty? It's not just one factor, of course, but the addition of 2023 MVP Breanna Stewart sure helped the Liberty put together their most memorable season in years.

But the Aces have an MVP candidate as well. A'ja Wilson came up just short of the honour but still won Defensive Player of the Year for the second season in a row, proving her value to her team and the league as a whole.

Las Vegas — trying to be the first team to repeat a title since the Los Angeles Sparks 21 years ago — set a WNBA record with 34 regular-season wins this season.

New York, meanwhile, is the only still-existing original WNBA franchise that has never won a title but they believe they are primed to finally nab their first.

What will these two "super teams" bring to the table in the WNBA Finals? Here's a look.

Before getting into the breakdown of how Wilson and Stewart impact their respective teams, let it be known that the last four WNBA MVP award winners will be present in this match-up with 2021 MVP Jonquel Jones suiting up for the Liberty, too.

But this season, both Wilson and Stewart were key players for their respective team's success, with Stewart winning the 2023 MVP honour and A'ja Wilson finishing third in voting, just six points behind Connecticut's Alyssa Thomas and 13 behind Stewart.

Stewart trailed only former Seattle Storm teammate Jewell Loyd in points per game, and the Liberty forward averaged 23 points, 9.3 rebounds and 3.8 assists in her first season in New York, as well as 1.5 steals and 1.6 blocks per game.

One of Stewart's concerns in this post-season has been shooting, as her 46.5 per cent overall and 35.5 per cent from behind the arc percentages dropped in the Liberty's six playoff games, falling to 35.6 and 20.7 per cent.

As for Wilson, she finished just behind Stewart in scoring with 22.8 points per game on average, but the two-time DPOY added 9.5 rebounds and 2.2 blocks per game on average en route to a second-straight Finals appearance.

It's hard to find fault in Wilson's game in the post-season, as she has averaged 25.8 points on 59.5 per cent shooting. But most of that crazy production is because her opponents lacked the size or athleticism to guard her, which the Liberty will have down low.

For good reason Wilson and Stewart have been headliners for the better part of the season, but neither of them would be remotely near the Finals without their literal All-Star support.

On the Aces side, many of their championship-winning players from last year have returned. That includes Chelsea Gray, who not only averaged 15.3 points, four rebounds and 7.3 assists this season but also made an impact defensively by setting a career-high in blocks this season with 25.

The Aces also have Jackie Young and Kelsey Plum, both averaging over 15 points per game this season with Plum shooting a career-high 47.5 per cent from field goal range, while Young was second in the league in three-point percentage shooting 44.9 per cent. Add in Sixth Woman of the Year Alysha Clark, who made 38.6 per cent of her three-pointers and scored in double figures 10 times, and the Aces have both a scary offensive and defensive lineup.

But the Liberty have the talent to match, as evidenced by the 2-2 season-series split and the fact New York defeated the Aces 82-63 in the Commissioner's Cup Final.

As mentioned previously, 2021 MVP Jonquel Jones moved to New York this season, and against her former team the Sun in the semifinals Jones put up 25 points, 15 rebounds and four blocks, joining Lisa Leslie as one of two players in league history with multiple 25-point, 15-rebound playoff games. The Liberty are 16-1 when Jones has a double-double, and Jones and Stewart's size make them a difficult frontcourt to guard.

Second Team All-Defensive honoree Betnijah Laney will be tasked with guarding a player like Gray or Plum, while also contributing offensively as she averaged 12.8 points and shot 39.2 per cent from beyond the arc this season. Sabrina Ionescu, of course, will be a long-range threat, shooting 44.8 per cent from the arc and averaging 17 points per game this season, while Courtney Vandersloot will be the primary playmaker as she averaged 8.1 assists per game.

For the first time in WNBA history, two former players will serve as head coaches in the Finals. And both Becky Hammon and Sandy Brondello can add more hardware to their collections.

Both have already won titles as coaches, as Brondello won with the Phoenix Mercury in 2014, and Hammon is the reigning champion head coach in Las Vegas. The two competed against each other as players, but they also worked together in San Antonio when Brondello was beginning to coach and Hammon was still playing. That time together included a trip to the 2008 WNBA Finals when their San Antonio Silver Stars lost to the Detroit Shock.

With the two teams having split their season series equally, it's hard to determine exactly who will win. The Liberty took the Commissioner's Cup, but the Aces have home-court advantage and have only lost at home twice all season. The Aces are a better defensive team and commit less turnovers, but the Liberty can control the offensive boards while also shooting better from long range.

The Liberty had to play two of the best defensive teams in the league on their path to the playoffs, while the higher-seeded Aces got to play two teams with less defensive strength. The Liberty have a strong bench with players like Marine Johannes and Kayla Thornton, while the Aces tend to play with a smaller lineup.

Overall, this series looks like it's going to go the full five games considering how the two have stacked up during the regular season. But with their talent and edge depth-wise, it feels like the Liberty will take this in the end.