The Las Vegas Aces and visiting New York Liberty are set to square off in yet another anticipated meeting on Thursday, with both teams coming off impressive victories on Tuesday in their return from the All-Star break.
The Liberty (16-12) posted a season-high scoring total in a narrow 113-109 road win over the Los Angeles Sparks, led by dominant performances by franchise cornerstones Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu.
Stewart tallied 29 points on 11-of-19 shooting and made 2 of 4 attempts from 3-point range in addition to dishing out seven assists. Ionescu chipped in 27 points, making 5 of 9 3-point attempts.
The Liberty logged their third consecutive win after dropping their previous four games to fall to just one game above .500.
“I think it’s confidence,” Stewart said. “Our last two games before the break, we played Dallas and we won in overtime then (Ionescu) went crazy in the fourth against Chicago. What our team says is never say die. We continue to fight through the good, the bad, the indifferent, and that’s what we did (Tuesday) as well.”
The Liberty enter this game having defeated the Aces in both meetings this season, in Las Vegas on June 23 and again for the Commissioner’s Cup championship in New York on June 30.
The Aces (19-8) handled the Portland Fire in a decisive wire-to-wire effort on Tuesday, led by a dominant performance from the dynamic duo of A’ja Wilson and Jackie Young.
Wilson padded her case as MVP front-runner with a 28-point, 14-rebound clinic, making 7 of 10 attempts from the field and 13 of 14 from the free-throw line. Young wasn’t too far behind on the box score, tallying 25 points on an efficient 9-of-14 shooting from the field.
It was a timely win for Las Vegas, which entered the All-Star break having lost two of its past three games. That included an embarrassing 109-75 defeat to the Indiana Fever and a late-game collapse in a 100-99 loss to the Washington Mystics.
“We want to build habits,” Aces coach Becky Hammon said. “We want to build a level of consistency. I want to see the defensive end of the floor being played first and foremost, locked in on that end and then I think we become a very tough team to beat.
“I’ve said it before, when we play defense, we become an elite team. When we don’t, we’re a very beatable team. So, I’m going to harp on them on that end of the floor.”
–Field Level Media
