How the Liberty reached the WNBA Finals and what went wrong for Aces

A WNBA three-peat won’t happen this season. The New York Liberty eliminated the Las Vegas Aces on Sunday, ending the Aces’ quest to win a third consecutive championship. The Liberty will have home-court advantage in the WNBA Finals, which open Thursday, and will face the winner of Tuesday’s decisive Game 5 between the Minnesota Lynx and Connecticut Sun.

After the Liberty’s 76-62 victory in Game 4 on Sunday in Las Vegas to win their semifinal series, New York’s players praised the two-time defending champs.

Jonquel Jones even referred to getting past the Aces in the playoffs as feeling like a “rite of passage.” It speaks to how good Las Vegas has been the past two seasons, and how the Aces set a bar for other teams to try to match. Las Vegas beat the Connecticut Sun in 2022 and New York in 2023, both in four games. The Aces’ core — A’ja Wilson, Chelsea Gray, Kelsey Plum and Jackie Young — was back in 2024…