The rematch is set. The No. 1 seed in the 2024 WNBA playoffs is playing up to par.
The New York Liberty completed their first-round sweep of the eighth-seeded Atlanta Dream with a 91-82 victory on Tuesday night in front of a packed house at Barclays Center. It was no surprise, as the Liberty have their eyes on their first WNBA title as a franchise being one of the original teams in the league and vanquished the Dream in three of their four regular-season meetings.
They also left them in the dust, cruising to a commanding 83-69 win in Game 1 on Sunday.
“The ultimate goal is what it is. But, you know, it’s every single game is a championship game to get to that final goal,” Ionescu said. “And obviously our goal is to not lose at home. So, this was really important for us to come out, take these two and have a couple days off and kind of rest, recharge and get ready for whatever it is we’re going to play.”
New York took care of business, and the two-time defending champion Las Vegas Aces did the same in the second game of Tuesday’s twin bill, taking down the Seattle Storm 83-76 on their home floor.
The Aces are attempting to become the first WNBA team to win three straight championships since the Houston Comets won the league’s first four titles from 1997 through 2000, and they conquered the first step of that mission with a sweep of the Storm.
The Liberty were looking for a W so they could give all their attention to the next round, but the Dream must not have gotten the memo.
In fact, the road team raced out to a double-digit lead in the first twenty minutes, with Allisha Gray on a heater from the great beyond. While the Liberty did not roll over and scratched and clawed their way back to take the lead in the second quarter. Atlanta did not go away quietly and reclaimed a slim five-point lead at halftime before a back-and-forth affair ensued in th second half.
In the end, it came down to this, the Liberty had too much firepower.
“It had a little bit of everything,” Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said of the run.
Sabrina Ionescu was unstoppable and took the game over, on her way to a career-high 36 points, with nine assists, and three steals on 12-of-23 shooting from the field and 5-of-11 shooting from 3-point range She buried back-to-back three-pointers to take the lead in the middle of the fourth quarter and then dished the ball to Leonie Fiebich for a crucial and-1 as the home team started to separate themselves and seize control.
Ionescu was not alone, as former MVP Jonquel Jones did a little bit of everything, with 20 points, 13 rebounds, two steals and one block on 8-of-12 shooting from the floor, collecting a double-double while Breanna Stewart added 13 points and six boards.
Embed from Getty Images“We have unfinished business,” Jones said.
Gray did everything she could to keep the Dream alive with a team-high 26 points behind 5-of-8 shooting from downtown. She also got help from her teammate Rhyne Howard, scoring 19 points, five rebounds, three assists, two steals and two blocks. Still, it was not enough down the stretch.
Ionescu controlled the tempo even when she was not directly scoring and assisting and fittingly put a bow on the game on the free-throw line as the crowd serenaded her with MVP chants.
A’ja Wilson and the two-time defending champions are moving on to the next round.
In the middle of a back-and-forth battle between some of the WNBA’s best, the Aces were able to close out their first-round series against the Storm in large part because of veterans like Wilson and Kelsey Plum.
Wilson, the unanimous 2024 WNBA MVP, finished Tuesday’s contest with a double-double with 24 points, 13 rebounds, two assists and two blocks while Plum tacked on a team-high 29 points to go along with six rebounds and three assists. Jackie Young and Chelsea Gray were just as important to the team’s success as they combined for 21 points in the win.
While the Storm had a nearly impossible task of going up against the dynasty, Gabby Williams and Nneka Ogwumike did everything in their power to help Seattle attempt to keep its 2024 season alive.
Williams had 20 points, five rebounds and three assists while Ogwumike finished with 16 points, 10 rebounds and one assist.
Skylar Diggins-Smith and Ezi Magbegor also contributed 27 points, but superstar Jewell Loyd was a no-show, finishing with only nine points, a huge departure from the 19.7 points she averaged during the regular season.
With the Aces moving on to face a tough and gritty New York team with revenge on their mind that finished the regular season with a sparkling 32-8 record, the Aces will continue to rely on the duo of Wilson and Plum in a rematch of last year’s WNBA Finals in the next round against the Liberty.
