This WNBA semifinal series is compelling for numerous reasons, and the battle between the 2023 WNBA MVP, Breanna Stewart, and this year’s winner, A’ja Wilson is at the top of the list. Also, six women playing in the series — Stewart, Wilson, Chelsea Gray, Sabrina Ionescu, Kelsey Plum and Jackie Young — were on the 2024 U.S. Women’s Olympic basketball team that brought home gold after winning in Paris.
After a win on Sept 24, Plum and Aces head coach Becky Hammon were asked about the rematch with the Liberty.
“First of all, New York is a lot better than they were last year, just plain and simple,” Plum acknowledged. “Bigger, they shot the ball at a better clip. If you go down the line like pound for pound, individually, all of them are better basketball players — so credit to them. I think that for us, we have to focus on what we do. There’s adjustments and things we made throughout the series for sure, but I think sometimes we can be our own worst enemy. They kicked our butt all three times.”
“There’s no secret that they’ve taken care of business and they’ve done what they needed to do and that’s why they have the one seed so it’s an uphill battle,” Hammon said. “I’ll just say they’ve been the best team all year. They played like a team with an edge, and we’ve worked our way there. I feel like we got our edge back probably in the last three to four weeks. It always starts on the defensive end, but at the end of the day, win, loss. Shots made, shots missed — it’s all zero-zero.”
The Liberty will host the Aces on Sept. 29 at 3 p.m. on ABC. The Connecticut Sun will face the Minnesota Lynx in the other WNBA semifinal game on the same day.
