New York Liberty blown out 95-81 in Game 3 as Las Vegas Aces bounce back at home
Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images
The fourteen-point margin doesn’t do justice the second-half butt whipping a desperate Aces team handed out on Friday night. It felt like the New York Liberty slayed the Las Vegas Aces dragon in Game 2. Not that the series was over, or that they would underestimate a dynastic Aces team down 2-0, but that they ate the Aces’ very best punch.
A’ja Wilson played every second of the second half, the game came down to the wire, and after Becky Hammon spent the night animated as ever on the bench, she sounded defeated in her postgame presser.
“This is why three-peating is hard,” said the two-time champion. “The whole league has been pissed off for the last 8 months, and my players are in commercials, and this and that, and being freaking celebrities, and you get distracted. That’s why it’s hard.”
So, could Game 2 be the swing game and Game 3 New York’s coronation, the passing of the torch? Not quite. That would seem a tad too disrespectful to the three-peat seeking Aces, who came out ready for another barnburner against New York.
Friday night’s first half was a clinic in high-level basketball; each team shot 7-of-14 from three, but neither team played poor defense...
Easily my favorite possession of the game so far. Both teams working their tails off. This is what it's supposed to look like. pic.twitter.com/WQJzB5DmeP— Nekias (Nuh-KY-us) Duncan (@NekiasNBA) October 5, 2024
The Aces led 52-49 after an exhilarating first 20 minutes, but far more than the one-possession deficit the Liberty were facing — Jonquel Jones had racked up three fouls, a conundrum she had stayed out of all postseason, and Sabrina Ionescu was scoreless. Zero points.
Sandy Brondello opted to give the credit to Vegas: “I think their defense — it was 13-to-10 in fouls, so you could do whatever you want — they’ve got the physicality. They were more intentional how they wanted to play.”
Neither Ionescu nor Jones would reverse their fortunes in the second half, and a tight game turned into a laugher by the end of the third quarter, a period in which seven-and-a-half-minute scoreless stretch doomed the visitors.
It was the first time New York’s offense truly stalled out, as it had in the 2023 WNBA Finals, as it does when the WNBA’s most elite team looks anything less. In the third quarter, they were first unable to generate open shots, unable to hit the ones they did generate, and finally, unable to shake themselves out of cold sweats with trips to the free-throw line or shots in the restricted area.
All in all, New York produced a six-point third quarter, a level of futility too overwhelming for any defense to recover from.
Becky Hammon had decried her team’s interior defense — “The layups, the layups are just backbreaking, and that’s us” — after Game 2, but she oversaw a complete change of fortunes in Game 3. New York didn’t even shoot all that poorly from three, but the interior scoring and ability to break the paint was non-existent.
The Libs shot a ghastly 14-of-38 from two, a non-competitive number even if it wasn’t a back-against-the-wall game for their opponent.
“They were getting deflections, very physical,” said Sandy Brondello. “We didn’t play very well, but they took us out of our rhythm. They just stayed close, we didn’t set good enough screens to get separation, we didn’t roll hard enough, all the little things that would have helped us, we didn’t do.”
The rest of the numbers — points off turnovers, second-chance points, fast break points — snowballed after the Liberty’s flat third quarter. Breanna Stewart led the Liberty with 19 points, though that number was matched or exceeded by A’ja Wilson, Kelsey Plum, and a resurgent Jackie Young, who scored 24 points.
jackie young masterclass ✌ pic.twitter.com/GRxQqfUHW8— Bala (@BalaPattySZN) October 5, 2024
When Chelsea Gray, who scored ten but dished seven assists and generally looked like Chelsea Gray again, was told that Becky Hammon was waiting for a night for all her guards to go off, she responded, “We was waiting for that too.”
The one positive: New York fans were able to relax during garbage time in the fourth quarter rather than sweat the final seconds out, even if it was melancholy.
As the smoke machines went off at Michelob ULTRA Arena, Ryan Ruocco declared: “The Las Vegas Aces aren’t finished just yet.”
No they are not. And neither is the Liberty’s quest to make the WNBA Finals. Now, New York must face a near-certain nail-biter in Game 4. But was it ever going to be easy?
Next Up
Photo by Barry Gossage/NBAE via Getty Images
Game 4. Sunday afternoon, from Las Vegas, on ESPN. Tip-off is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. ET.
Welcome to Billionaire Club Co LLC, your gateway to a brand-new social media experience! Sign up today and dive into over 10,000 fresh daily articles and videos curated just for your enjoyment. Enjoy the ad free experience, unlimited content interactions, and get that coveted blue check verification—all for just $1 a month!
Account Frozen
Your account is frozen. You can still view content but cannot interact with it.
Please go to your settings to update your account status.
Open Profile Settings