LAS VEGAS — Betnijah Laney sat on the New York Liberty bench as the waning seconds of the WNBA Finals opening game ticked off the clock. Seated to her right were Jonquel Jones, Sabrina Ionescu, Breanna Stewart and Courtney Vandersloot. New York’s star-studded starting five had been pulled from Sunday’s contest with 1:34 to play and the Liberty trailing by 15 points. Laney started to towel off sweat with the much-anticipated first game of this year’s series having been decided.
The Vegas crowd, which Vandersloot described as “insane” because of its energy, roared, with more than 10,000 fans waving white rally towels in approval. A third-quarter Aces blitz shook Game 1 and swung the contest for the home team. The question for New York after a 99–82 defeat is how it will nowrecover?
Vandersloot, the Liberty’s veteran point guard, didn’t seem overly concerned by the result. She cited New York’s subpar third quarter, in which the Aces outscored the Liberty 26–16 to spin a three-point halftime deficit into a seven-point lead entering the fourth. Amid the Aces’ third quarter explosion, Vandersloot, who won a championship with the Chicago Sky in 2021, recalls a stretch of 5-6 minutes in which the Liberty didn’t execute their defensive scheme and took the first…
