There is no doubt: the 2023 WNBA Finals are the biggest and most star-studded in the league’s history. Before this season started the narrative was that this match-up was inevitable, which might have been true, but both teams had to meet those expectations. The Las Vegas Aces made history as the best regular season team in WNBA history led by reigning MVP and now back-to-back Defensive Player of the Year A’ja Wilson. Their opponents built a team in the summer to contend with this Las Vegas squad centered around the newly crowned two-time MVP Breanna Stewart.
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This season Las Vegas broke the mold for what a great season is in the WNBA. They won the most games in a single season (34) with the best scoring offense and the second-best scoring defense.
That all starts with Wilson, who won the 2022 MVP and the last two Defensive Player of the Year awards. She had a career-best season and raised her game in the playoffs.
Wilson is averaging 25.8 points, 11.2 rebounds and 4.8 blocks plus steals per game in the playoffs. She has been a one-woman wrecking crew in the playoffs leading all players in rebounds and blocks with back-to-back-to-back 30+ point games.
While Wilson is the centerpiece of Las Vegas, the team also rolls out three All-Stars in the starting line-up with two-time MVP Candace Parker as a wildcard. Parker appeared in 18 games for Las Vegas before a foot injury required surgery and sidelined the future Hall of Famer.
Chelsea Gray is a five-time All-Star, Finals MVP and ninth all-time in assists as the leader of this team out of the backcourt.
She is joined by two-time All-Stars Kelsey Plum and Jackie Young to make the best trio of guards in the WNBA. Las Vegas has four, five if you count Parker, individual players that could lead their own teams to the playoffs, but together have formed a special unit that is back in the Finals for the third time in four seasons.
On the other side of the New York Liberty, they are the second team to win 30+ games in a season (32-8) and finished with the third-best offense and defense during the regular season.
That was largely due to New York bringing in Stewart this season, along with five-time All-Star Courtney Vandersloot and 2023 MVP Jonquel Jonquel Jones to create a foursome with young star Sabrina Ionescu.
Those four have melded together much like Las Vegas this season to make a seemingly unbeatable team. This season New York has lost nine total games, three coming against Las Vegas while two of Las Vegas’ six losses this season came against New York.
This is a battle of two elite teams, loaded with All-Star talent in the starting line-ups. It is also an individual battle between Wilson (2022 MVP) and Stewart (2023 MVP) marking just the third time in league history the previous season and current season’s MVP met in the finals. It also happened last year when Wilson and Las Vegas toppled Jones’ Connecticut Sun team.
The other time this happened was in 2017 when Sylvia Fowles the newly named MVP led her Minnesota Lynx team to victory over the Nneka Ogwumike and the Los Angeles Sparks.
Both times this has happened the reigning MVP and her team picked up the win and won the championship, a great sign for Stewart and New York.
Another good sign for New York – Stewart is 6-0 in Championship series (or games) in her career. Stewart won all four NCAA Championships during her time with UConn and both WNBA Finals with the Seattle Storm in her already legendary career.
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