By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
The New York Liberty got the last laugh and successfully exacted their revenge over the Las Vegas Aces, 76-62, to punch the first WNBA grand finals ticket on October 7, 2024.
With the huge win, New York just bounced back after losing to Las Vegas in last year’s WNBA finals stage, capping the semifinal series with a 3-1 victory to oust the defending champions.
It was a close encounter in the first three quarters as both teams couldn’t mount a double-digit lead but a fourth-quarter burst from New York made the difference.
New York wrapped up the final 10 minutes of the game with a massive 23-11 scoring run and limited Las Vegas to their lowest-scoring quarter of the entire WNBA semifinals.
Sabrina Ionescu spearheaded New York’s winning effort after dropping a game-high 22-point output built from an efficient 7/14 shooting from the field.
After only contributing four points during their Game 3 loss, Ionescu bounced back and led New York to their second straight WNBA grand finals appearance.
Breanna Stewart was also in the zone and stuffed the stat sheets with a dominant performance of 19 markers, 14 rebounds, five assists, four blocks, and a steal.
New York’s main edge over Las Vegas was the rebounding battle, where they won by a wide margin of 21, 48-27.
Their rebounding sparked their fourth quarter rally, as four consecutive offensive boards were generated into several easy deuces, ballooning their lead to 11 points.
After that sequence, Las Vegas failed to counter and went cold in the most crucial time with only four minutes remaining in the semifinal duel.
Reigning Most Valuable Player (MVP) A’ja Wilson poured all that she could to help Las Vegas survive but her 19 points and 10 rebounds weren’t enough to contain New York’s balanced attack.
New York will await the winner between the Minnesota Lynx and Connecticut Sun who will still duke out for the last finals ticket.
