The Las Vegas Aces are your new/old WNBA champions. The Aces secured the 2023 WNBA title on Wednesday night with a 70-69 win over the New York Liberty in Game 4 of the Finals.
The Aces showed resilience by not allowing the Finals series to go to Game 5 and taking care of the business despite trailing by nine points at halftime. Powered by an outstanding performance from A’ja Wilson, the Las Vegas team outscored the Liberty by 11 points in the third quarter and then just did enough to cling to the lead.
Wilson finished the game with 24 points and 16 rebounds and won the Finals MVP honors. Jackie Young also made a big impact with 16 points and seven assists, while Kelsey Plum helped with seven points, eight rebounds, and five assists.
The Aces now became the first WNBA team to win back-to-back titles since the Los Angeles Sparks did it in 2001 and 2002. They are also the only third team in league history who managed to achieve this feat.
“This is what it’s all about, to have your name etched in history right now with other teams,” Wilson said after the game. “We never gave up, and this is a moment that we need to celebrate. This is a moment that not a lot of people get a chance to do it, and for us to do it shorthanded, it is truly amazing. It just makes winning that much better.”
For Liberty, it was another crushing WNBA Finals loss. Despite making the WNBA Finals five times, the New York team is yet to win a title. To make it worse, they only managed to win two games in those five trips.
