Las Vegas Aces' A'ja Wilson and Mark Davis celebrate with teammates next to the trophy after Game 4 of a WNBA basketball final playoff series against the New York Liberty Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2023, in New York. The Aces won 70-69. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
By Doug Feinberg
A'ja Wilson and the Las Vegas Aces secured their place as one of the greatest teams in WNBA history.
The Aces became the first team to repeat as champions in 21 years, getting 24 points and 16 rebounds from Wilson and a defensive stop in the closing seconds to beat the New York Liberty 70-69 in Game 4 of the Finals in New York on Wednesday night.
“It’s not easy, as you know. This is what it's all about,” Wilson said. “Not a lot of people get to do it. To be short-handed and win is amazing. It makes the win that much better. It's hard to get back to the Finals to win again.”
The Aces joined the Los Angeles Sparks (2001-02) and the Houston Comets (1997-2000) as the only teams in league history to win consecutive titles.
Las Vegas did it without starters Chelsea Gray and Kiah Stokes, who were both sidelined with foot injuries suffered in Game 3. Gray, the 2022 WNBA Finals MVP, was constantly in the ear of her teammates during timeouts and shouting encouragement from the sideline. Las Vegas was also still missing veteran Candace Parker, who had foot surgery in late July.
“We’ve been facing adversity all season, playing without different players. ... We have some professional fighters," said Alysha Clark, who was pressed into the starting lineup Wednesday. “To weather the storm of everything we went through, to show up every single day. To be in this moment right now and do it together, it speaks volumes about us, our chemistry.”
Coach Becky Hammon said this was the closest team she has ever been around. The entire team attended the postgame news conference and cheered every answer, especially those by Wilson, the Finals MVP, who finished third in the regular-season MVP balloting.
With the game tied at 64, Las Vegas scored six straight points, including the first four by Jackie Young, to go ahead 70-64 with 1:26 left.
Courtney Vandersloot hit a 3-pointer on New York's next possession, then stole the ball from Kelsey Plum, which led to Sabrina Ionescu's foul-line jumper to get the Liberty within one with 41.7 seconds left.
On the ensuing possession, Las Vegas worked the shot clock down before Hammon called timeout with 3 seconds left on the shot clock. The Aces got the ball to Wilson on a lob, but Breanna Stewart blocked the shot, giving New York one last chance.
After a timeout with 8.8 seconds left, the Liberty got the ball to Stewart, who was double-teamed. The ball swung over to Vandersloot in the corner, but her shot missed badly, setting off a wild celebration by the Aces at midcourt.
“It's a play we’ve ran before, get the ball to Stewie’s hand,” Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said. “Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t. We got it where we wanted to, but didn’t make it.”
Vandersloot finished with 19 points and Betnijah Laney added 15 for New York.
Hammon said before the game she would be “throwing the kitchen sink at (the Liberty), see what sticks, see what works.”
The Aces rotated defenses, which stymied New York after the Liberty scored 23 points in the first quarter.
“I think they were throwing whatever defense they had at us and make sure it’s ugly,” Stewart said. “Sometimes we lost our flow and ball movement.”
Hammon started WNBA sixth woman of the year Clark and Cayla George in place of Gray and Stokes. Clark did a stellar job on her former Seattle Storm teammate Stewart, holding her to 10 points on 3-of-17 shooting. George had 11 points.
“Just knowing what she likes to do. And just locking in and making sure that I don’t give that to her," Clark said of guarding Stewart. "I’m so proud of this team.”
This was the first close game of the season between these teams. The four regular-season matchups were all blowouts with the closest contest being a nine-point win by New York on Aug. 28. The first three games of the WNBA Finals were also routs, with New York winning Game 3 87-73 to stave off elimination.
Game 4 was so tense that Ionescu was seen vomiting into a trash canduring a timeout midway through the fourth quarter, shortly after she hit a 3-pointer to get the Liberty within 60-58. Ionescu stayed in the game after the timeout.
New York's record fell to 2-10 all-time in the WNBA Finals. Teams that fall behind 0-2 in the best-of-five series Finals have lost all nine of those series.
STAR-STUDDED CROWD
Once again, New York drew dozens of celebrities to the game, including basketball royalty Sue Bird and Dawn Staley — the South Carolina coach who loudly cheered on her former star player, Wilson. The two embraced in a long hug after the game. Also in attendance were Liberty Ring of Honor members Vickie Johnson and Sue Wicks, and actors Jennifer Connelly, Issa Rae and Jason Sudeikis.
"Anything Is Possible," a documentary about NBA superstar Kevin Garnett recounting his career from being drafted out of high school to a championship with the Boston Celtics, is set to premiere on Showtime. Executive producer Marc Levin and co-directors Daniel Levin and Eric Newman joined Cheddar to provide some background on the project and discuss Garnett's legacy. With KG considered a pioneer for modern NBA draftees straight out of high school (the fifth pick in 1995), the filmmakers also discussed the possibility of the league reversing course on its current rule that requires a player to be at least 19-years-old and a year removed from high school to play.
Professional sports is facing a reckoning right now over several stories painting an ugly picture of a toxic work environment, encompassing multiple teams in multiple leagues and dealing with different issues.
This week, the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks ousted their general manager and senior director of hockey operations after an investigation confirmed former player Kyle Beach's claims that the team's former video coach Brad Aldrich sexual assaulted him back in 2010, with upper management ignoring his claims until after the team won the Stanley Cup that season. Last night, Joel Quenneville, now the coach of the Florida Panthers but Chicago's coach that season, stepped down from his post.
This comes just a few weeks after the NFL was rocked by leaked emails showing now-former Las Vegas Raiders Head Coach Jon Gruden using racist, sexist and homophobic language. He resigned soon after the emails came to light. We can't forget, though, that those emails come from a much broader investigation of the toxic work environment in the offices of the Washington Football Team. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said this week the league wouldn't publicly release anything from its investigation of the team, but lawyers for many of the women interviewed in the case say they want a public report.
And last January, just one month after hiring him, the New York Mets had to fire then-General manager Jared Porter, who admitted to sending explicit, unsolicited texts and images to a female reporter in 2016 when he worked for the Chicago Cubs. ESPN had been in possession of the texts since 2017, but the woman in question asked the network not to run the story out of fear her career would be harmed. She only reached back out to ESPN after she left the field of journalism altogether. Porter has been banned from the sport through next season.
If you believe in the phrase "where there's smoke, there's fire," professional sports is a five-alarm blaze.
Julie DiCaro, senior writer and editor at Deadspin, joins None of the Above to discuss.
Jill and Carlo discuss the scenes of joy at American airports as borders reopen, another tool in the Covid toolbox, the latest in the Astroworld crowd crush tragedy and more.
Gaming technology studio Mythical Games recently raised $150 million in a round led by Andreesen Horowitz, bringing Mythical's valuation to above unicorn status at $1.2 billion. Mythical Games' mission is to create a new generation of gaming with play-to-earn games that allow players to play to win actual cryptocurrency. Now the company is taking it to another level with NFT technology, allowing players to play with characters they can truly own. Mythical Games CEO John Linden joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Evan Vandenberg, the founder and CEO of Dibbs, a sports card trading platform, joined Cheddar to break down how his company allows sports fans to buy and sell fractions of sports cards. The physical trading cards are typically held in a vault while fans are provided with a digital representation of that card that they can go on to sell or even buy more fractions of the item. Vanderberg also talked about the company's $13 million Series A funding round and investments from major sports figures like the NBA's Chris Paul and NFL's DeAndre Hopkins.
A Freitag pod with Carlo and Baker, talking about the upcoming federal vax-or-test deadline, the most shocking upset of this week's elections, an incredible story of selflessness and Love, Hate, Ate.
Trysta Krick, host of BetMGM Tonight, breaks down how several major NFL stories impact Week 9 lines, while Snapback Sports founder Jack Settleman makes sense of the chaos in college football and Iain MacMillan, Senior Editor at BetSided, gives his pick for who will win the 2022 NCAA Basketball Tournament.
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