It wasn’t pretty, but the Las Vegas Aces won the 2023 WNBA Championship on the road against the league MVP and without two starters. A’ja Wilson won Finals MVP after putting the team on her back all season and especially in Game 4 with the team shorthanded. Now Las Vegas becomes only the third team in the history of the WNBA to win back-to-back championships and the first team in 20 years to accomplish this rare feat. All season Las Vegas was on a collision course with history, exceeding expectations and finishing the 2023 season as arguably the best overall team in the history of the league.
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Game 4 was a sloppy, choppy, ugly game that did not look good for Las Vegas early on. In the first period Las Vegas fell down 23-13 behind eight team turnovers and 6-of-16 shooting. With Chelsea Gray out of the lineup, Las Vegas struggled to control the ball, get good looks and find an offensive rhythm.
Jackie Young and Kelsey Plum combined to go 1-for-6 from the field with just three total points. It was a rough start for Las Vegas and Game 5 looked to be all but guaranteed for the New York Liberty.
Then, Las Vegas turned the game around quarter by quarter, chipping away at the lead until eventually taking control in the final period.
Las Vegas won the second period 17-16, the third period 23-12 and held a six-point lead with just 1:27 to go after a Wilson turnaround jump shot to seemingly seal the comeback victory.
New York made a push and nearly stole the game in the end to force a Game 5 with a Courtney Vandersloot three-pointer in the corner with 1:13 left, followed by a Vandersloot steal leading to her setting up Sabrina Ionescu for a free throw line jumper with 41.7 seconds to go to cut the lead to just one.
Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones combined for a huge block giving New York 8.8 seconds to draw up a play, but Las Vegas blew it up, forcing Stewart to pass out of a double-team to Betnijah Laney, who rotated to Vandersloot for a long two-point attempt as time expired.
New York blew a huge opportunity with Las Vegas down two starters in Gray and Kiah Stokes, a double-digit lead after the first period and a rattled Las Vegas team. With Las Vegas taking Game 4 , it showed why they are one of the greatest teams of all-time.
Wilson carried Las Vegas all game with 24 points and 16 rebounds, making clutch shots when needed and gritty defense all game.
She earned her first WNBA Finals MVP win, making her the second player in WNBA history to win the regular season MVP and Defensive Player of the Year award twice and one WNBA Finals MVP. The first and only other player to do that – Lisa Leslie.
This Las Vegas team shows no sign of slowing down behind Wilson, Gray, Young and Plum as a quartet that has been a buzzsaw for two straight seasons now. With Wilson as the anchor, Las Vegas is 60-16 in the regular season and 16-3 in the playoffs for an overall record of 76-19.
Looking ahead to next season, if Las Vegas can win a third championship it will become only the second team ever to reach that milestone, behind the Houston Comets of the 1990s.
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