Liberty Ring In New Year With Win Over Aces

BROOKLYN—The New York Liberty ended a banner day on a high note.

Natasha Cloud's busy seafoam debut and a healthy showing from Breanna Stewart guided the Liberty to a 92-78 win in their 2025 season debut over the Las Vegas Aces. It was the perfect end to a near-perfect day for the Liberty (1-0), who received the championship rings and banner they earned from their five-game series victory over the Minnesota Lynx in last fall's WNBA Finals.

Stewart showed no side effects of offseason surgery, putting up a team-best 25 points to open the title defense. Fresh from Connecticut in a March trade, Cloud paired 22 points with nine assists, six rebounds, and three steals while seamlessly fitting into the metropolitan system.

Saturday's showdown featured the last three WNBA champions on the floor: Las Vegas (0-1) had defeated the Liberty in 2023's final round while New York had disposed of Sin City in four games in the semis just before the mayhem against Minnesota. Individually, it featured the winners of each of the last five WNBA MVP awards, with Stewart and Jonquel Jones (17 points, 10 rebounds, game-best plus-19) going up against A'ja Wilson.

Wilson, the victor in 2020, 2022, and 2024, made it apparaent she would have a say in the day's proceedings by immediately scoring 11 of the Aces' first 16 points. A floater from Dana Evans gave Las Vegas a lead after the opening period but Sabrina Ionescu's and-one permanently changed the lead.

New York went up by as much as 17 before the half let out, partly sustained by a plus-7 adavantage on the glass. Five different Brooklynites had at least four rebounds in the first half with Nyara Sabally pulling in three off the offensive glass alone.

Wilson's continued dominance and a trio of triples from Jackie Young, however, began to eat into the New York lead, shrinking it down to as little as a possession on multiple occasions. The most potent threat came with just under seven minutes to go in the final frame, when Wilson shrank the lead to two on a successful and-one earned after the Aces brought in three consecutive offensive boards.

But Cloud, who briefly left the game after pick-and-roll contact with her face that was ruled incidental, set the stage for a lasting Liberty run that put the game out of reach: she and Stewart united to score the next 15 New York built to build an 81-70 lead, the stretch beginning with two and-ones of her own.

The latter drove Barclays Center into hysterics, setting the stage for a happy ending that saw the Liberty shoot over 73 percent in the final 10 minutes, which proved to be more than enough to negate a 31-point, 16-rebound double-double from Wilson. New York, further buoyed by 10 bench points from Kennedy Burke, created a dreary Vegas debut for former Stewart teammate, who was held to 2-of-10 from the field. It's just the second time she has been held to five points or less since 2022.

A few historic footnotes punctuated the Liberty triumph: Sabrina Ionescu's streak of regular season games with at least one three-pointers ended at 63, three short of tying the all-time W mark set by Ivory Latta. Ionescu still has the all-time record between both regular season and postseason games at 82.

In better seafoam news, Cloud's nine helpers were the second-most a woman has earned in her Liberty debut while Sandy Brondello earned her 81st victory in seafoam, tying Pat Coyle for the third-most in franchise history.

New York won't face Las Vegas again until they head to Sin City on July 8. In the meantime, the Liberty will now have four days off before they face the Chicago Sky on the road next Thursday (8 p.m. ET, WWOR).

Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags

Schedule