The Las Vegas Aces are up 2-0 in the 2023 WNBA Finals, outscoring the Liberty by 45 points across the opening stanza of the championship series.
They’ve scored 203 points, a Finals record across two games that are played without extra time, according to Across the Timeline (Bar none, the best tool for contextualizing the WNBA).
The Aces combined 203 points between Game 1 (99) and Game 2 (104) is a record in consecutive regulation games in WNBA Finals history.https://t.co/abRnRYy7c7 https://t.co/Cegao2i3au
— Across the Timeline (@WBBTimeline) October 12, 2023
Vegas opened up the game with a 19-2 run across the first 4 minutes and 40 seconds, culminating in a 38-19 first quarter score.
The Aces set the WNBA record for offensive rating this season, finishing the year with a 111.5 offensive rating (they’re scoring on average, 111.5 points per 100 possessions). In the WNBA Finals, the Aces have a 128.5 offensive rating according to WNBA.com stats. That’s not just good or great, it’s approaching if not surpassing absurdity.
One play in the mid-first showcases much of what’s made the Las Vegas Aces the team I would consider the greatest team I’ve ever seen play basketball. Period.
With Alysha Clark in the game, the Aces play largely 4 out 1 in, with some 5 out looks sprinkled in. They start the possession with a deep paint touch from A’ja Wilson. The play breaks as Courtney Vandersloot helps off the strong side corner and forces the ball into a “Who’s gonna get it?” gray area.
This is where things kick into high gear. It finally feels like the Liberty are getting some traction, about to force a turnover and a stop, clot the bleeding that’s been happening across 94×50 since tipoff.
Kelsey Plum pops up with the ball, she sizes up Vandersloot, and collapses the defense again with her first step on a baseline drive, drawing the defense a second time. She kicks the ball out to Jackie Young at the top of the key, where she nailed a multitude of killer shots in Game 1 and already in Game 2. The defense scrambles.
The ball swings automatically to Wilson, who replaced Plum in the corner.
Wilson contemplates the three (she hit one later in the first, as all five starters hit a three in the opening quarter), jabs in, and kicks back to Young to set up a potential ball screen. Kayla Thornton lunges out on the three point threat… and Young rejects the screen, dusting Thornton in the process.
The ball is back in the paint again, a third time in less than 15 seconds.
Jonquel Jones rotates off the weak side corner and a plus shooter in Clark. Betnijah Laney x’s out to the corner and Clark kicks the ball to Chelsea Gray simultaneously.
Courtney Vandersloot closes hard, but any gap is enough for Gray to nail a shot, perhaps the most clutch shooter and player in general in the league.
This is beyond a backbreaking possession. This is one of those plays that will circulate every few weeks a half-decade from now with varying captions of “this is how the game is supposed to be played.”
Seven passes. Every single player touches the ball. Every single player moves and cuts to maintain maximal spacing. The split second the player with the ball doesn’t have an advantage, the ball is singing through the air as the Liberty defense is still scrambling to adjust.
The Liberty are not playing well, that goes without saying. But, this is so much more about the Aces and just how impressive they are as a collective.
Basketball is about stringing together as many consistent possessions as possible, working to be the more consistent team that can execute with efficacy, quickness, and decisiveness: The Aces are that to a T.
No team can do that fror every possession of every game, but the Aces are putting forth one of the most memorable stretches of consistent dominance that we’ve frankly ever seen.
Every player is a threat. Every player is making decisions. Every player is in motion. That is killing the Liberty. While foot-speed and athleticism has been a clear deficit for New York, it’s more so been a problem of reactivity and that quickness. The Aces are playing their hand before the Liberty have even finished counting their chips, unable to decide what they have before they’re hit in the face with a Royal Flush.
The Las Vegas Aces are a special basketball team, playing with a rare verve, and on track to go down as one of, if not the best team we’ve ever seen play the game. Enjoy it in the moment before the Finals are over, because this does not come around often.
