A’ja Wilson’s three-peat hopes hangs by thread as Las Vegas Aces must create WNBA history to keep faint title hopes alive
Catilin Clark may be the best rookie in the WNBA but A'ja Wilson is the best player.
The Las Vegas Aces star star is a two-time WNBA champion and two-time Defensive Player of the Year coming off the back one of the greatest WNBA regular seasons in living memory.
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The dominant center set the single-season WNBA points record and the single-season rebounding record while claiming her third MVP, this one unanimous.
She also won an Olympic gold medal as an integral part of Team USA, further enhancing her status as the best women's basketball player on the planet.
But Wilson, and the reigning, back-to-back world champion Aces, find themselves with a mountain to climb in the WNBA postseason.
The Aces are currently down 0-2 to the New York Liberty in the WNBA semifinals, knowing that a loss in Friday night's pivotal Game 3 will be fatal to their three-peat ambitions.
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Las Vegas are on the ropes and praying that a sudden uptick in form, or a monumental collapse from the Liberty, will see them make this year's WNBA Finals.
Unfortunately, history is stacked against them.
WNBA teams that go up 2-0 in a best-of-five series are a perfect 18-0 all time.
The likes of Wilson, Kelsey Plum, Jackie Young, Alysha Clark, and Chelsea Gray will have to do what no other team has managed and rattle off three straight victories when trailing two games in a five-game playoff series if they want to advance.
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It doesn't help that the Liberty seem to have the defending champs' number.
The Aces are 0-5 against the Liberty in the regular season and playoffs in 2024. The five straight defeats ties a franchise record for consecutive losses against the same opponent.
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The series is a rematch of the 2023 Finals, which the Aces won 3-1, but this year it's been all about the Liberty who have left Las Vegas with a huge uphill battle to win the next three straight.
Aces head coach Becky Hammon is well aware she's coming up against history and the best team, at least on current form, in the W.
"They've been the best team this year," Hammon told reporters this week.
"Because of their habits, their edge that they've had the entire year, their incredible attention to detail. Quite frankly, we haven't had the edge."
"This is why three-peating is hard," she went on.
"The whole league has been p***** off for the last eight months — my players are in commercials and this and that. And being celebrities. And you get distracted. That's why it's hard. Human nature is distracting."
The fourth-seed Aces have been well below par against the top-seeded Liberty, a franchise in search of their first WNBA championship.
Sandy Brondello's team is littered with stars, including two-time WNBA champion and Finals MVP Breanna Stewart, as well as 2021 MVP Jonquel Jones.
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However, Liberty guard and sharpshooting extraordinaire Sabrina Ionescu has been the star of the series so far, scoring 21 and 24 points in Games 1 and 2, respectively.
The 26-year-old finished Game 2 against the Aces with 24 points, nine rebounds and five assists, making her the only player in Liberty history with multiple postseason 20-point, five-rebound, five-assist games.
Ionescu also came up clutch during the fourth quarter, scoring or assisting on 16 of New York's 19 points, helping to ice the game in the Liberty's favor, 88-84.
Wilson, meanwhile, led the Aces with 24 points but New York's defense did about as good a job anyone can in slowing the reigning league MVP down.
Whoever wins the series will face either the Minnesota Lynx or Connecticut Sun in this year's Finals.
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The Lynx and Sun's best-of-five series is currently tied 1-1.
Game 1 of the best-of-five 2024 WNBA Finals is set for Thursday, October 10.
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