In defeat of Aces, New York Liberty ‘didn’t panic’ — and clinched a playoff spot

“Wait, what?” Stewart said. “What the … [It’s] surprising because we still have a lot of games to go.”

To be exact, the Liberty have 13 games left in the regular season. But this was far from the first time the league’s best team clinched a spot early. Last season, the Aces clinched a berth on Aug. 1 after defeating the Atlanta Dream and improving to 24-2.

To clinch early, New York had to beat the Aces on Saturday — and to do that, it needed to wake up. In the first quarter, the Aces hit six threes, four of which were created on an extra pass, and shot 60% from the field. 

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Both teams wanted their opponent to play the inverse of their identity. For the Liberty, the scheme assistant coach Olaf Lange put together involved clogging the paint and forcing the Aces to pass the ball instead of playing one-on-one. And the Aces forced the Liberty to play more one-on-one, interrupting dribble handoffs and passing lanes while not allowing the Liberty to move the defense and get open shots on paint penetration.

Ionescu willed her team to stay in the game in the first quarter, scoring 12 points on 5-for-8 shooting. She scored at all three levels: floaters, a stepback three, a circus-looking 15-footer, and a 29-foot 3-pointer off center Nyara Sabally’s screen set near the Michelob Ultra logo. 

The first quarter ended with New York only down 28-24, but the Liberty weren’t playing their style and were allowing the Aces to succeed. But a switch flipped at the end of the first quarter and continued into the middle of the second. The Liberty went on two different unanswered runs to take a 37-30 lead.

How did they do it?

“We didn’t panic, first of all, when they were hitting a lot of shots,” Stewart said postgame. “And we made sure to pick up our defense. We weren’t in the gaps as much we needed to be or we were overhelping, overcommitting. And we just played a little bit smarter for the rest of the game.”

Playing smarter meant getting more aggressive on defense and showing the Aces that the Liberty wanted this win more. Wings Leonie Fiebich and Kayla Thornton took turns guarding Chelsea Gray, which was an atypical matchup in this series. Gray was out during the teams’ first meeting this season, and while New York wing Betnijah Laney-Hamilton usually draws that assignment, Laney-Hamilton remains out with a knee injury.

Both Fiebich and Thornton used their length and size to contest and crowd Gray’s space. Often, they picked her up before she crossed the timeline.

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The Liberty scored 11 second-chance points to the Aces’ three and pulled down 11 offensive boards to Las Vegas’ three. New York’s 46 total rebounds were a season high.

“I think they played harder than us in some ways,” Aces head coach Becky Hammon said postgame. “And that’s probably the most disappointing. The ball doesn’t go in or out or whatever; this adjustment, that adjustment. You can’t get outplayed heart-wise.”

A growth point for the Liberty this season has been how they handle situations when shots don’t fall. Saturday’s game featured many shots on both sides not falling. Neither team shot above 40.5% from the field. In the first half, Liberty center Jonquel Jones missed three layups less than 5 feet from the basket, but frustrations under the rim and the Aces’ triple teams didn’t stop her. 

Playing smarter also meant getting Jones involved in ways besides just posting up and cleaning up missed shots. Jones finished with 10 points, 17 rebounds (seven of which were offensive) and seven assists. She has recorded multiple assists in 13 consecutive games, the longest streak of her career. This season, she is averaging a career-high 3.7 assists per game, well above the 2.8 she averaged during her 2021 MVP season. 

Jones didn’t necessarily need to score, but she needed to have the offense run through her, and that’s exactly what happened on Saturday. Jones received the ball often beyond the 3-point line and facilitated from there. She handled the ball and drove it, bringing the Vegas crowd with her. 

“Her ability to do everything any given night, it’s never really the exact same,” Ionescu said postgame. “… Each game, it’s kind of what we need of her, and her ability to adapt is something that I think I really cherish as a teammate. It’s knowing she’s going to be in the right spot, doing the right things for us on any night, whether she’s scoring a lot or not.”

Four of Jones’ assists came in the second half, and as Jones began facilitating more, her team did, too. Nine of the Liberty’s 15 total assists came in the second half. After trailing the Aces in total assists in the first half 8-6, the Liberty ended the game with a 15-14 edge.

After starting the first quarter in disarray and not playing their game, the Liberty found their way back to who they are: a team that shares the basketball almost above all else.  

“New York is very unselfish, and that’s probably their best attribute,” Hammon said.

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How the reigning MVP helped seal the deal

With Kiah Stokes, Alysha Clark and A’ja Wilson guarding Stewart, it was difficult for her to get clean looks. In the first half, Stewart scored eight points on 3-for-9 shooting and added five rebounds. 

But in the fourth quarter, when the game was on the line and with the Aces only down eight points, Stewart reminded the Aces and those watching why she’s the reigning MVP. Stewart scored 10 of her 18 total points in the quarter on 4-for-7 shooting.

The Aces closed within four points with 6:24 remaining, but after a Liberty timeout, New York went on a 10-0 run to take a 14-point lead. 

“I thought we weren’t flowing into our offense,” Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello said of why she took the timeout. “We’re getting some unforced turnovers. Defensively, we’re overhelping where we didn’t need to. It was just getting back to execute the game plan and how we wanted to play that got us that lead. And I thought we came out and Stewie made some big shots there, too.”

After an Aces timeout and a missed 3-pointer by Stokes, Stewart sealed the game. She drove to her left with Wilson guarding her on a switch, then turned on her pivot foot and faded away, scoring a 13-foot jump shot off the glass.

When some players make a shot like that, they tend to bask in its beauty and run back slowly in transition. Stewart, however, had to keep going. She followed that score with a defensive stop on the other side, an emphatic block on Aces guard Kelsey Plum that maintained New York’s 14-point lead. 

Stewart made otherworldly shots in the fourth quarter, at a point in the game where it would’ve been natural for her to be tired. She played 35 minutes on Saturday, slightly above her average, less than a week after leading Team USA to an Olympic gold medal.

But taking Stewart out for two-to three-minute spurts in each half and trusting wing Kennedy Burke to play in her place left Stewart fresh enough to do what she does best.

“Nobody cares if we just came off the Olympics and we have a game four days later [with a] nine-hour time zone change,” Stewart said while fellow Olympians Brondello and Ionescu laughed at the absurdity of it all next to her. 

“When you think about it, it’s a little bit wild, and I think the three of us are all still experiencing some jet lag or tiredness, but just making sure that we set the tone. And our teammates have really worked hard while we’ve been gone, and we have bigger things to do.”

Those big things include the long road to the WNBA Finals that awaits the Liberty. Clinching a playoff spot in mid-August is just the beginning.

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