The Las Vegas Aces were forced to play without star point guard Chelsea Grey and fellow starter Kia Stokes Wednesday evening as they attempted to win their second consecutive WNBA title.
For a while there, it looked like the New York Liberty would pull off the home win and send this one back to Vegas for a decisive Game 5 Friday night.
It was not to be for WNBA MVP Breanna Stewart as Las Vegas came through and turned a double-digit second half deficit into a dramatic 70-69 win.
Stewart hit on just 3-of-17 from the field in the losing effort, including 0-of-3 from three-point range. When Liberty star Courtney Vandersloot missed a would-be game winner as time ran down in the fourth quarter, the Aces officially pulled off the biggest comeback in a clinching game in WNBA history.
Two-time WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson was a dominant figure as the Vegas pulled off the stunner on the road to take the series 3-1. Wilson scored 24 points and grabbed a whopping 16 rebounds. That included a clutch shot down the stretch.
It earned Wilson the WNBA Finals MVP.
Filling in for the injured Grey, Alysha Clark was stellar on the defensive end of the court against Stewart, Vandersloot and Sabrina Ionescu.
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Basketball world reacts to Las Vegas Aces repeating as WNBA champions
For the first time since the 2001-2002 Los Angeles Sparks, a team has repeated as champions. For the WNBA’s best regular season team, the road to the title did not come without setbacks.
First off, Vegas lost out to New York for Stewart during free agency last offseason. It then picked up the all-time great Candace Parker on the open market. She ended up missing all but five regular-season games.
Needless to say, the basketball world had its reactions to the Las Vegas Aces’ historic road win in New York Wednesday evening.