What remains one of the WNBA’s most compelling rivalries resumes on Thursday night in Sin City: New York Liberty vs. Las Vegas Aces (10 p.m. ET, Prime Video).
Neither team occupies the superteam heights they occupied when this rivalry first launched during the 2023 season.
Despite their status as defending champions, the Aces’ dominance is now pocked with inconsistency, largely due to their lack of depth. After failing to repeat as champs, the Liberty looked for an injection of new energy over the offseason,
only to instead become beset by an athleticism deficit that has been compounded by injuries.
And yet, Liberty vs. Aces will always intrigue because for two reasons: Stewie and A’ja.
Stew’ja still are the definitional stars of this league. Their shared status only has been confirmed by their recent performances, where their teams have been as dependent as ever on their absolute brilliance in order to earn wins.
After New York suffered through a four-game losing streak, Breanna Stewart seemingly decided that she would do whatever it took to lift the Liberty out of their rut.
First, she dropped a 33-point and 10-rebound double-double in a win over the Dallas Wings, playing 42 minutes in the overtime affair. Then, she battled her way to 20 points and nine boards as New York escaped against the Chicago Sky. In the Liberty’s first post-All-Star game, she filled the stat sheet for 29 points, seven assists, four rebounds, four steals and three blocks to get the win over the Los Angeles Sparks.
The season-long leader in wRAPM (regularized adjusted plus-minus) according to Help the Helper, as well as databallr’s RAPM calculation, Stewart has been, at least according to advanced metrics, the most impactful player in the WNBA this season.
The Liberty’s struggles have demanded that Stewie shine, and she has. And of late, her star has been even brighter.
Star power, of course, has become synonymous with A’ja Wilson.
And A’ja understands that with great power comes great responsibility, or accountability. That’s something the four-time MVP consistently expressed in ESPN’s Life in the W documentary. Last season, Wilson, despite her individual excellence, owned the Aces’ struggles, and made it her mission to fix them. Wilson’s acute understanding of the expectations that come with her indvidual achievements and accolades produced title No. 3 for the Aces.
This season, again, is asking a lot of A’ja. And she is, once again, delivering.
Amongst Vegas’ overall uneven performances of late, she is a guarantee.
In a blowout victory over the Toronto Tempo, Wilson nearly put up a point a minute, scoring 26 points in 28 minutes on über-efficiency. When the Aces fell short against the Washington Mystics in DC, she still poured in 38 points, grabbed seven boards, dished five assists, swiped three steals and swatted two shots. Out of the All-Star break, it was more of the same, with a 28-point and 14-rebound double-double in a win over the Portland Fire.
All that production has padded A’ja’s lead at the top of ESPN Analytics’ MVP ladder, with Wilson having accumulated 123.8 net points, more than 20 points more that second place.
So, the winners of the last four WNBA MVP awards, as well as six of the last eight, deservedly take center stage on Thursday night.
For all their issues, the Liberty have enjoyed two of their best performances of the season against the Aces. Before surviving against the A’ja-less Aces to win the Commissioner’s Cup, the Liberty, powered by 15 second-half points from Stewie, secured an 11-point win in Vegas.
Will the matchup with a familiar foe again produce a favorable outcome for Stewie and the Liberty? Or, in true rivalry fashion, will A’ja and Aces reclaim the advantage?
In the comments, let us know what you expect to see from the Liberty, Aces, Stewie and A’ja, as well as the other stars involved, on Thursday night.
