Familiar foes: Las Vegas Aces and New York Liberty set for WNBA Finals rematch in playoff semifinals

NEW YORK (AP) — The stage is set for A’ja Wilson and the Las Vegas Aces to take on Breanna Stewart and the New York Liberty in a star-studded rematch of last year’s WNBA Finals.

This time it’s a round sooner.

The Liberty and Aces swept their first-round opponents and will meet Sunday in a semifinal showdown. New York has been on a mission all season to get back to the Finals and win the franchise’s first WNBA championship.

To accomplish that goal they’ll have to beat the two-time defending champion Aces. They’ll meet in the semifinals best-of-five series that begins in New York in Sunday.

“They’ve been the best team all year. They played like a team ,,, with an edge,” Las Vegas coach Becky Hammon said. “And we’ve worked our way there. I feel like we got our edge back probably in the last three to four weeks. I don’t think we’re the same team that New York has seen.”

The Liberty swept all three games during the regular season from Las Vegas with the last victory in New York three weeks ago. Unanimous league MV P A’ja Wilson didn’t play in that game as she was resting an injured foot.

“New York is a lot better than last year,” Aces guard 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.

“We have to focus on what we can do. Sometimes, we can be our own worst enemy,” Plum added. “But they kicked our butt all three times. This is a fresh start. But there’s no secret they’ve taken care of business and they’ve done what they needed to do, and that’s why they have the 1 seed. So it’s an uphill battle.”

Unlike last season when the Aces were the No. 1 seed, the Liberty have homecourt advantage this time.

While New York has been the best team all season the Aces struggled at the beginning of the year while Chelsea Gray was out recovering from a foot injury she suffered in the 2023 Finals.

The Aces have been play lately, winning nine of their final 10 games heading into the postseason before they swept Seattle in the opening round. The only loss in that stretch was the one to New York.

The Liberty advanced to the semifinals by sweeping Atlanta. They were challenged in the second game, rallying from an 11-point deficit behind a strong game from Sabrina Ionescu, who matched the franchise playoff record with 36 points.

“We wanted to win this series for many reasons, obviously staying in New York. But knowing that the time between the quarterfinals and the semis, this is the most we have,” Stewart said. “So for us to kind of recover, get back into it and be ready for, the semifinal series on Sunday is really important.”

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AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball