In Game 4 of the 2023 WNBA Finals, the Las Vegas Aces defeated the New York Liberty 70-69 to claim the franchise’s second consecutive championship.
After the Los Angeles Sparks did it in 2001-2002, the Aces became the first group to repeat as champions with the victory.
Guard Chelsea Gray & center Kiah Stokes, who both sustained foot injuries in Game 3, were absent for Las Vegas. A’ja Wilson of the Aces scored a game-high 24 points and grabbed 16 rebounds, and Jackie Young of the Aces contributed 16 points and seven assists to help the team win.
Breanna Stewart, the 2023 MVP, and Sabrina Ionescu, a guard, gave the Liberty to an early lead against the Aces on Wednesday, leading 23-13 after one quarter. But Las Vegas re-entered the game with a vengeance.
Liberty guard Courtney Vandersloot got a chance to force a decisive Game 5 with a buzzer-beater with 8.8 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter and her team behind by one, but she missed. The Aces players at the Brooklyn, New York’s Barclays Center celebrated the win after that miss.
Wilson thanked her teammates for helping her “find her strength” throughout the series in accepting the WNBA Finals MVP award.
Wilson said on the ESPN broadcast that they were relying on one another heavily at the time. “Throughout the season, we battled through a lot of difficulties. We were successful. The kind of pride I have in my teammates is beyond words. When I was down, they helped me up. We both shed tears. Together, we prayed, and now we’re toasting with champagne.
Becky Hammon, the head coach of the Aces, claimed that she had faith in her group because she “knew who she had in the locker room.”
There isn’t a single person here that Hammon doesn’t believe in. “I know what they are capable of, so at the end of the day I told them, ‘Win or lose, I am rolling with them.'” All day, I play with them.