Over three weeks ago, in front of their home fans, the New York Liberty rolled over the Las Vegas Aces.
On Saturday, the Liberty did the same during an extremely successful visit to the Minnesota Lynx.
The Liberty will attempt to follow up one of their most decisive wins of the year by getting their third victory in the season series with the Aces when they host Las Vegas on Monday night.
Monday will be the final meeting between the top two teams in the WNBA before the playoffs
New York lost its first meeting with Las Vegas (30-5) on June 29 on the road 98-61, but the Liberty rebounded by earning a 99-61 win on Aug. 6 and an 82-63 win in Las Vegas on Aug. 15 in the Commissioner’s Cup final, the final victory of a seven-game winning streak.
That streak was stopped two days later when the Aces held Breanna Stewart to 3-of-15 shooting in an 88-75 win in a regular-season contest.
New York (27-7) won the final three games of its five-game trip by beating Phoenix, Connecticut and Minnesota. Two nights after overcoming a 20-point deficit for a 95-90 overtime win at Connecticut, the Liberty cruised to a 111-76 win over the Lynx by shooting 55.4 percent and hitting 12 3-pointers.
Stewart scored 38 in three quarters for her fourth game with at least 35 points. Sabrina Ionescu added 19 points in a game New York led by as many as 43.
“I was getting free on a few ball screens,” Stewart said. “Bringing it up in transition makes it tough for any defense, but just continuing to be aggressive.
Las Vegas leads the Liberty by 2 1/2 games in the race for the top seed in the playoffs. Since beating New York, the Aces are 2-2 and are looking to avoid consecutive losses for the first time since Aug. 2-4 of last season.
Las Vegas opened its four-game trip with wins at Atlanta and Chicago but shot a season-worst 30.8 percent in a 78-62 loss at Washington.
Kelsey Plum scored 21 points but the Aces misfired on 23 of 29 3-point tries.
“We didn’t have any legs,” Las Vegas coach Becky Hammon said. “We weren’t winning that game.”
–Field Level Media
