LAS VEGAS — A’ja Wilson had the game ball tucked under her arm as Breanna Stewart stood in front of her. They talked as the game clock wound down before sharing a brief embrace at the buzzer of the Liberty’s 87-76 win against the Las Vegas Aces.
That moment showed mutual respect between two of the WNBA’s biggest stars.
“Her and I, we’ve kind of been going back and forth and going at it for years now,” Stewart said of Wilson. “Anytime we do it, we know it’s a big moment and we want to really make sure we make the most of it. So being able to kind of be aggressive, shots were falling for me, and getting the win was obviously the most important.”
Stewart took over in the fourth, scoring 12 of her game-high 20 points in the final 10 minutes.
She blocked Wilson’s shot on one end. Moments later, the Liberty star drained a 3 over Wilson on the other.
Han Xu never gets tired of seeing Stewart go off like she did late.
“Every time she got the ball, we were like, ‘Yeah, she’s gonna make that shot,’” Han said. “She’s very strong and tough, and I’m very happy to play with her.”
Coach Chris DeMarco might be new to the WNBA this year. But he didn’t need to be briefed on how important Tuesday’s game against the Aces was to his players.
The Liberty and Aces — routinely two of the league’s best teams in recent years — have squared off on some of the biggest stages.
The Liberty beat the Aces to win the 2023 Commissioner’s Cup championship before losing to Las Vegas in the WNBA Finals months later.
In 2024, the Liberty ended the Aces season, beating Becky Hammon’s team in the semifinals en route to winning New York’s first championship.
At the end of this month, the two will face off in Brooklyn for the Commissioner’s Cup final.
All this to say, Tuesday wasn’t just a stress test for either team. This rivalry matters. It’s a potential Finals matchup. It was a chance to strike first — a week before hardware will be attached to the victory.
And Tuesday, the Liberty claimed Round 1.
Two days after blowing a 17-point second-half lead in a loss to the Sparks, the Liberty responded in a major way.
The Libs took the lead with six minutes left in the first quarter and never allowed the Aces back in.
DeMarco said the team’s goal was to make Wilson, the four-time league MVP, as uncomfortable as possible. It was going to take a team effort.
Consider Tuesday a success in that case.
The Liberty held Wilson to six points in the first half and a season-low-tying 16 points on the entire night.
After the game, concern turned toward Satou Sabally, who exited the game with 6:17 left in the second quarter after taking several blows to the face. She didn’t join the team back out on the floor after halftime and was ruled out with a face injury.
DeMarco said Sabally will be reevaluated.
Overall, though, Ionescu said she was pleased with how the Liberty responded to Sunday’s loss.
“We’re a veteran team, so we understand that moments like that can either make or break you, and it’s a long season,” Ionescu said. “For us, it was just understanding we’ve got to focus on [coming] together, not letting that happen again, and continue to grow from it.”
