The opening stand of the superteam WNBA Finals was a tale of two halves, with the Aces riding a surge down the stretch to a 99–82 win over the Liberty. Stars like LeBron James, Sheryl Swoopes and Tom Brady (who purchased a minority share in the franchise in March), were on hand for Game 1, with Michelob Ultra Arena euphoric as the Aces broke away from New York in emphatic fashion.
Sandy Brondello’s team will once again have to face down the unfriendly and unruly Sin City environment in Game 2, in hopes of leveling the series before making the trip back to Brooklyn. Rebounding from a comprehensive defeat, the work ahead of Wednesday’s matchup is daunting, but there are a few glaring points the Liberty will need to address.
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Slow down Jackie Young
Aces coach Becky Hammon called out Young ahead of Game 1 as her team’s x-factor. “I think Jackie Young is going to have a big series,” said Hammon. “She has a tough defensive matchup, and I think we can get more from her offensively.”
Young lived up to her coach’s prophecy, logging a game-high tying 26 points—matching teammate Kelsey Plum—and overwhelming the New York defense in the process. Draining five of her eight attempted threes, Young was automatic from beyond the arc starting in the first quarter. She grew into the game, too, finding her lane and getting downhill, tearing the Liberty apart at the seams.
“We knew we just had to be aggressive and take what the defense was giving us,” said Young after Game 1. On a squad full of big personalities, Young is more subdued, even shy. But on the court, she has steadily gained confidence, averaging a career-high 17.6 points per game this regular season, shooting 52.3% from the field and 44.9% from three (the best percentages of her five seasons in Las Vegas).
“Jackie was my rookie. She’s my baby sister that I never wanted, but I love her to death,” said A’ja Wilson in a postgame press conference. “And I’m going to make sure that I am pulling that confidence out of her.” Young echoed Wilson’s sentiment, calling the two-time league MVP “like my big sister.”
Young’s team puts a lot of faith in her on the other side of the floor, too, often giving her the toughest defensive assignment. In Game 1, Young was crucial in shutting down the Liberty’s perimeter game, limiting Sabrina Ionescu to just seven points.
After a breakout regular season, Young’s Game 1 explosion isn’t necessarily surprising, but it does provide a conundrum for New York going forward. Brondello’s tactic up until this point has been to pack the paint, disrupting Wilson, while putting Betnijah Laney, (who was named to the WNBA All-Defensive second team) on Chelsea Gray in the hopes of stifling Las Vegas’s offense by harassing its facilitator. Young and Plum, with more space, took advantage of the limited, but consequential room to breathe. The Liberty, who have deployed a mix of man coverage and zone defense throughout the postseason, will need to find a way to slow the Aces’ backcourt and get stops in Game 2.
“I think their movement got us out of position a little bit,” said Brondello. “We talked about how one-on-one defense was critical for us, and they got the upper hand in this game, but it’s a series. We know we can defend better. … They had too many open layups at the rim.”
Get the guards going
Las Vegas’s guards combined for an impressive 72 points, while Courtney Vandersloot, Laney and Ionescu logged just 28 points for New York. “Our trio of guards, I thought, were pretty ridiculous overall,” said Hammon. The same could not be said for the Liberty, and it proved game-defining.
While Marine Johannès was a bright spot off the bench, draining one-legged threes and putting up 14 points in her 11 first-half minutes, the Aces quickly adjusted in the locker room, holding the French star scoreless through the last two quarters. After rarely using her reserves this postseason, Brondello gave Johannès 20 minutes, having her check in for a struggling Vandersloot and Ionescu. Vandersloot was just 2-for-5 from three and 4-for-11 from the field, while a typically prolific Ionescu made just one of her five attempted threes.
Brondello credited the Aces’ defense, saying it was “as good as I’ve ever seen it.” She also admitted it was an uncharacteristic night for many of her stars. “Our guards, they just had a little bit of a tough night. That isn’t going to happen two games in a row.”
While New York can chalk up some of Sunday’s offensive slump to bad luck, it will also have to come up with a plan of attack to usurp a locked-in Las Vegas defense. Part of getting the backcourt going will come from kickstarting its own defense, with the Liberty needing to register defensive stands and get out in transition. Much of New York’s offensive production starts with solid D, with stops often translating on the other side of the floor.
Move the ball
Ball movement is a barometer for the Liberty’s offensive output, and the ball wasn’t moving at the team’s typical cadence in Game 1. The Aces disrupted New York’s rhythm, but heading into Game 2, Brondello will have to find a way around their scheme.
Laney finished Sunday afternoon with 11 points, below her 16.1 playoff average and well below her three 20-point showings against the Sun in the semifinals. The Liberty will hope to get her more looks as they grow into the series—Laney took just eight shots from the field in Game 1. New York relies on Laney’s defensive presence, but her offensive production is just as important, so getting her involved will be crucial and will also require more patience than New York displayed in the Finals opener.
In the same vein, the Liberty will hope to get Jonquel Jones more touches. She recorded her seventh straight double double, the most in a single postseason in WNBA history, logging 16 points and 10 rebounds. The issue is that 12 of those points came in the first half, helping New York to a three-point lead at the break. As the Aces began to run away with the game in the third frame, the Liberty appeared to rush, taking quicker shots rather than moving the ball around, resulting in an offensive breakdown. Getting Jones the ball will be key not only in banking paint points but also in opening up space on the floor.
