WNBA playoffs: Aces take care of business and now a semifinal rematch against Liberty is on deck

The Las Vegas Aces and the New York Liberty are poised for a rematch.

Last year, the two teams met in the WNBA Finals as Las Vegas won its second straight championship, topping New York 3-1 in the series. This season, their face-off comes in the second round after the No. 1 Liberty swept the No. 8 Dream, and the No. 4 Aces did the same to the No. 5 Storm in an 83-76 Game 2 victory Tuesday night.

It comes at a different time in the playoffs, but the Aces expect the same intensity and an even better Liberty squad.

“New York is a lot better than last year,” Kelsey Plum said. “Just plain and simple. They’re bigger. They’ve shot the ball at a better clip. Pound for pound, individually, if you go down the line, all of them are better players.”

They’ve also beat Las Vegas three times this season.

“They’ve played like a team pissed off,” Las Vegas coach Becky Hammon said of the 32-8 Liberty. “They’ve played with an edge. And we’ve worked our way there. I feel like we’ve gotten our edge back in the last three to four weeks.”

Despite an up-and-down season, the defending champion Aces like where they are at. After earning No. 1 seeds in both 2022 and 2023, Las Vegas has a more challenging road to a potential three-peat, a feat that hasn’t happened since the Houston Comets won four in a row from 1997-2000.

Las Vegas looked every bit like a contender against Seattle. In Game 1, the Aces held the Storm to just two points in the fourth quarter, using the strong defensive effort to surge to victory. And in Game 2, it was a hot-shooting start that set the groundwork for the victory. The Aces led by as many as 16 in the first quarter, and shot 5-of-6 from the 3-point line. The Storm mounted a comeback, but the deficit was too great to overcome.

“We know what it takes [to win],” A’ja Wilson said. “We know that we can’t let the game slip through our hands, because we’ve been on the other side of it. We know what that feels like. It’s come down to just fighting through, being on the same page and keeping the main thing, the main thing.”

Wilson was a big part of the victory over Seattle, just like she has been in every Aces game this season. While various aspects of the Aces attack have been inconsistent, Wilson has been a constant. Her 26.9 points, 11.9 rebounds and 2.6 blocks per game earned Wilson her third MVP Award, and her 24 points and 13 rebounds on Tuesday helped Las Vegas advance to the semifinals.

Las Vegas also received a lift from Plum, who bounced back from a poor performance in Game 1. On Sunday, Plum scored just 2 points, going 1-of-8 from the field. But between Games 1 and 2, Plum sat at a sushi bar and gave herself a mental pep talk.

“I was like, ‘I’m throwing this whole game out the window.’” Plum said. “And it worked.”

Plum finished with 29 points on 11-of-15 shooting in Game 2 to lead Las Vegas in scoring.

Perhaps the biggest difference between the Aces that struggled at times during the regular season and the Aces that defeated the Storm is Chelsea Gray.

Gray missed the first 12 games of the season with a foot injury she suffered during the 2023 WNBA Finals. She came back before the Olympic break, and then helped Team USA to a gold medal, but it took most of the season for Gray to look like the player that was named Finals MVP in 2022.

Against Seattle, the Aces got prime Gray. In Game 1, she finished with 16 points and 7 assists, and in Game 2, the veteran point guard recorded 12 points and 9 assists. But most importantly, she’s taking — and making — the kind of high-difficulty shots that have propelled Las Vegas through the last two postseasons.

“Chelsea impacts winning,” Plum said. “And ask any high-level player in the league, and I guarantee they’d want Chelsea Gray on their team with five minutes left in a tie game. They’d pick her any time. I mean, I know I would.”

New York knows what it’s getting into with Gray at full health. Before her foot injury last season, Gray led Las Vegas to two victories over the Liberty, finishing with 20 points and 9 assists, and then 14 points and 11 assists.

The Liberty also know about Wilson and Plum and Jackie Young. But they have their own set of stars, with two former MVPs in Jonquel Jones and Breanna Stewart, and one of the league’s brightest young stars in Sabrina Ionescu.

Both teams are playing their best basketball. It’s a second-round matchup, but the semifinals series between Las Vegas and New York has the makings of an instant classic.