Can the Liberty Pull Off an Unprecedented Comeback in the WNBA Finals?
No team has ever come back to win after going down 2–0 in a best-of-five WNBA Finals series. The Liberty are hoping to become the first club to do so after finding themselves in a two-game hole against the reigning champs Aces. Las Vegas put a firm grip on the series Wednesday, following up an emphatic 17-point Game 1 win with a 104–76 rout, both victories supported by a boisterous Michelob Ultra Arena crowd. Now the series moves to Brooklyn, with New York’s back up against a wall.
Will the Liberty salvage their season and do the unprecedented? Or will the Aces put any superteam debate to bed with a Finals sweep? History may serve as an important prognosticator.
The Liberty, who gave up 38 points in the first quarter of Game 2, have a tall task ahead of them if they want to avoid being swept.
John Locher/AP
Regardless of what the record books may forecast, the Liberty have their work cut out for them. Almost nothing has worked for Sandy Brondello’s team in the first two games of the Finals, with New York’s backcourt struggling on both ends of the floor. The Aces guards outscored the Liberty trio of Sabrina Ionescu, Betnijah Laney and Courtney Vandersloot 72–28 in Game 1, and Game 2 wasn’t much better with the Liberty shooting 36.1% from the field. Not only will New York need to rally from its first back-to-back losses of the season, but it will also have to do the difficult work of rebuilding its confidence after two catastrophic outings.
Perhaps that’s why in the eight instances that a team has gone down 2–0 in the WNBA Finals, seven have resulted in a sweep. The only time a club has won a Game 3 after dropping the opening two Finals contests was last season when the Sun fended off a sweep at the hands of the Aces (Las Vegas went on to win the series 3–1). Connecticut’s stand could serve as a sliver of hope for an underperforming Liberty group—although it’s important to note the Sun’s Games 1 and 2 losses were to the tune of three and 14 points, respectively. But maybe, just maybe, in the same way the Aces struggled to adjust to the series moving to Connecticut from Las Vegas in 2022, Becky Hammon’s squad will be slowed by the move to Barclays Center. The Liberty boasts a loyal crowd, with an average postseason attendance of 9,374, second only to the Ace’s 10,255, per Across the Timeline. New York, however, likely won’t rely on the friendly environment to do the heavy lifting, especially not when Las Vegas is more a runaway train than a basketball team.
“Vegas are playing their best basketball at the moment. They’re playing with a lot of confidence. You see the chemistry that they have,” said Brondello after Game 2. “For us, we haven’t taken the steps forward. It’s very disappointing because we are a way better team than what we showed. We’re better than this, so the challenge is to go home and win on Sunday.”
Brondello is no stranger to comebacks, coaching the Mercury to one of the most impressive recoveries in league history. In 2018, with Brondello at the helm, Phoenix became the first WNBA team to force a Game 5 after dropping the opening two games in a best-of-five series. The Mercury were facing down a semifinal series against the Storm, led by a then 24-year-old Breanna Stewart. (In an interesting parallel, Stewart was crowned MVP that season, just as she was this year.) Seattle went on to defeat Phoenix in the deciding game, before sweeping the Mystics in the Finals. Despite the ultimate defeat, Brondello, now coaching Stewie, will look to run back her yet-to-be-replicated 2018 rally in the Finals—only this time she’ll need to take her team over the line.
Since the start of the season, the Liberty have been honest about their intentions: It’s title or bust. New York is the only original WNBA franchise without a championship, and that drought is deeply felt, especially by the current roster of players. Considering the Liberty assembled its superteam with the explicit purpose of rivaling Las Vegas, to be swept would only add insult to a devastating injury of losing. With that in mind, even a glimmer of hope may be enough to buoy a hungry New York side to a Game 3 victory. A Liberty championship may seem far-fetched right now, but at the very least there is still pride to play for.
“As frustrating as it is, we still have an opportunity and we’re still here and we’re in the Finals,” said Stewart. “And like Sandy [Brondello] said we’re going home for Game 3 and we’re going to fight. And we’re going to put it all on the line and we’re going to do whatever we can do to get that win.”
