The Los Angeles Sparks broke a 13-game losing streak to Las Vegas Aces on Saturday, beating the Aces for the first time since 2019. It gave the Sparks their first four-game winning streak since August 2021 and has them currently holding the last playoff spot.
And it did something else: It helped the New York Liberty move to No. 1 in ESPN’s WNBA Power Rankings, the first time this season the Aces have been displaced from the top spot.
It doesn’t mean the Aces are no longer favored to repeat as WNBA champions (they are). They still have a comfortable three-game lead in the standings ahead of the Liberty. The Aces might even look back on the past week as having helped them.
Last Tuesday’s Commissioner’s Cup final, a 82-63 Liberty victory in Las Vegas, didn’t count in the standings. But that doesn’t mean we can’t take the game into consideration when evaluating where the Liberty are as a team now.
It was the Liberty’s second double-digit win over the Aces in a row, following New York’s 99-61 victory Aug. 6 in Brooklyn. Las Vegas then beat the Liberty 88-75 on…
