Despite being deprived of the starters Chelsea Gray and Kiah Stokes, injured in the foot in Game 3, the Aces won 70-69 in the 4th round against Liberty, and won their 2nd title in a row! Becky Hammon’s players achieve the double, and only the Comets in the late 90s and the Sparks in the early 2000s managed to retain their WNBA championship title.
It is also the first time since 2016, and the Sparks title, that a team has become NBA champion by a small point. Because the suspense was there until the end with the Aces who first closed a gap of 12 points, before taking control at the end of the 3rd quarter thanks to Alysha Clark. On a 3-pointer from Jackie Young, A’ja Wilson’s teammates (24 points, 16 rebounds) will even have up to 7 points in advance (60-53).
It all depends on the last shot!
And then, pushed by its audience, Marine Johannès’ Liberty (1 point in 7 minutes) will eat into its delay. First it was Jonquel Jones who equalized at 64-64 with less than three minutes remaining. The Aces give a new push with the Wilson-Young duo. With 1min30 remaining, the Aces took off again: 70-64. But after a timeout, the Liberty let go, and Courtney Vandersloot then Sabrina Ionescu, with a small shot on the free throw line, brought theirs to -1 (70-69).
There are 41 seconds left to play. The room is standing. The timeouts continue, until Jonquel Jones counters Wilson! There are eight seconds left to play. Time-out exit. The ball to Breanna Stewart, who stares down two defenders. She shifts to Betnijah Laney, who finds Vandersloot alone in the corner. His 3-pointer turns into a submarine, and Jones, on the offensive rebound, scores after the siren! The Aces are WNBA champions down to the wire!
“Not many players get the opportunity to do that, and it’s amazing to come up short and win.” reacted Wilson, elected MVP of the Finals, after having already won the trophy for best defender of the year. “The victory is all the more beautiful. It’s difficult to come back to the final to win again.”
