LAS VEGAS — The good news for the New York Liberty after Wednesday night’s Game 2 shellacking at the hands of the Las Vegas Aces is that they boarded a charter airplane to fly back East less than two hours after the final buzzer sounded.
If that’s the good news, then what’s the bad news?
Well … just about everything else.
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As New York traveled a week ago to Las Vegas optimistic about its chances of winning on the Aces’ home floor for the start of the WNBA Finals, the majority of players slept while airborne. On their red-eye home, any dreams might be nightmares as they face a series elimination game Sunday in a 2-0 hole. The image of twirling white “Raise the Stakes” towels and the roars of “Let’s go, Aces” chants were sure to be interspersed with memories of defensive blow-bys and 3-pointers rattling out on the other end of the floor.
The Aces scored a WNBA Finals record of 38 points in the first quarter of Game 2 — a period which New York guard Sabrina Ionescu compared to a “clinic” — en route to a 104-76 win. New York sliced the margin to eight at halftime, but the second half of Wednesday’s contest looked much like the series opener, which Las Vegas won 99-82.
Why did the New York team that took the floor in Las Vegas look so different from the group that won a franchise-record 32 games?
“I don’t why,” Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said.
What went wrong?
“We didn’t execute anything we wanted to,” she said.
The Las Vegas Aces beat the New York Liberty 104-76 in Game 2 to take a 2-0 series lead in the 2023 WNBA Finals.
They're one win away from becoming the first team since the 2003 Los Angeles Sparks to repeat as WNBA champions.
— Tashan Reed (@tashanreed) October 12, 2023
Brondello said the Liberty wanted to play physical defense. They wanted to disrupt the drives of Las Vegas guards Jackie Young, Kelsey Plum and Chelsea Gray. They wanted to set better screens. Ionescu said she wanted to get into passing lanes. She wanted to rebound after a 2-of-7 Game 1 performance and be more aggressive.
But none of that happened. Young, Plum and Gray combined for 61 points, as A’ja Wilson led the Aces with 26 points and 15 rebounds. Ionescu scored 10 points, but she shot just 25 percent from the field. Her backcourt partner Courtney Vandersloot had nine, but she didn’t make her first field goal until the 6:11 mark of the fourth quarter. New York shot just 36.1 percent from the field and 22.9 percent from 3. The two aforementioned guards have combined to score just 36 points in the finals.
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“At the moment, nothing’s working,” Ionescu said.
“We’ll search for answers,” Brondello added. “I know we’re way better than that.”
She’s right. New York is. The Liberty had been the league’s best team the second half of the regular season and had defeated the Aces in three of their five matchups, including the Commissioner’s Cup championship in Las Vegas. Entering Wednesday night, the Liberty hadn’t lost consecutive games all season. They felt confident knowing that they rebounded from a 1-0 series deficit to the Connecticut Sun in the semifinals.
How do they feel now?
“We had no resistance, and that’s what I’m disappointed about,” Brondello said.
Just under 90 minutes before tipoff, Ionescu jogged onto the Michelob ULTRA Arena floor to begin her warmup. She dapped up general manager Jonathan Kolb and assistant general manager Ohemaa Nyanin before high-fiving assistant coach Olaf Lange. Lange then worked her out for just over 15 minutes, and when the Liberty’s star guard finished, she found a young fan who had been watching from just off the court with a sign that read, “I would trade my sister 4 Sabrina shoes.” Ionescu autographed the girl’s sign, her No. 20 jersey and her Sabrina 1 sneakers.
After finishing up her warmup, Sabrina Ionescu greeted this fan seated courtside with her sister (wearing an A'ja Wilson jersey) and signed the Liberty fan's sign, shoes and jersey.
"I will trade my sister 4 Sabrina shoes" @TheAthleticWBB pic.twitter.com/DHvYRzKUWD
— Ben Pickman (@benpickman) October 11, 2023
It was a joyous moment — for the Liberty supporter and the team’s star guard, perhaps Ionescu’s last one of the evening.
Brondello called her first timeout just three minutes into the game, with New York trailing 14-2. The Liberty missed five of their first six shots, while the Aces made five of their first seven.
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“It’s the finals and there’s no reason we shouldn’t be ready to go from the start of the game,” said Breanna Stewart, who finished with 14 points, 13 rebounds and a team-low minus-27 point differential.
The Liberty’s roster was built as a direct challenger to the Aces. Offseason additions of Stewart, Vandersloot and Jonquel Jones were supposed to create a worthy challenger to Las Vegas. Together, New York aspired to win its first championship in franchise history and derail the Aces’ quest to be the first repeat champion since 2002.
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In theory, that could still happen, though no team has ever come back from a 2-0 deficit in WNBA playoff history to win a series. Jones could continue to be a force on the inside — she finished Game 2 with 22 points and 10 rebounds. And New York’s four other starters could jell much like they had in the lead-up to the playoffs.
But right now?
“It feels like we’re a new team,” Ionescu said. “And we’re not. We gotta figure out a way to win.”
They must, or their season will end Sunday when Game 3 tips off at Barclays Center.
As they gathered in the locker room after the defeat, having failed to slow down the Aces, who Brondello said are playing “their best basketball at the moment,” she challenged her players. “Be better, because I know we are better,” she said.
She urged them to fight in front of their home crowd this weekend and to prove to themselves that they can perform at a higher level than they did in Las Vegas.
“We’ve got to find some urgency,” she said.
Against the Aces, though, they’ll need to find more than just that.
(Photo: Ethan Miller / Getty Images)