The celebration was fairly low-key considering how long the Liberty had waited to get back at the Aces for beating them on their home court in last year’s WNBA Finals.
However, Sunday’s 76-62 win wasn’t the moment the Liberty had been dreaming of.
They are just three wins away from making that dream come true and will have home-court advantage in the best-of-five series against either the Connecticut Sun or Minnesota Lynx. The finals start on Thursday.
“We went to the finals last year,” Breanna Stewart said. “We didn’t do nothing.”
The Liberty have spent nearly a year focusing on last year’s finals loss to a short-handed Las Vegas team and worked hard to establish the best record in the league. Coming up two wins short of a championship won’t be enough this year.
So, while beating the Aces was satisfying, it’s not the title they want.
The Liberty also carry the weight of their history. They reached the finals in three of the league’s first four years but lost each time to the Houston Comets. They also lost two years later to the Los Angeles Sparks.
Maybe this is the year they finally succeed.
One big advantage of finishing the series against Las Vegas in four games is that it gives New York extra time to rest while the Sun and Lynx prepare for a winner-takes-all Game 5 on Tuesday. The winner will then have to travel from Minneapolis.
“This playoff schedule is extremely condensed,” Stewart said. “If you go to Game 5, you have one day to prepare for Game 1 of the finals. That’s insane.”
Insane could also describe Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, which is attracting large, lively crowds filled with celebrities, including famous courtside fan Spike Lee.
Now that the Liberty are back in the finals, the excitement is expected to grow even more.
