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    What to Know About the 2023 WNBA Season

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    New superteams, new rules and Brittney Griner’s return are reshaping the league as star rookies try to make their mark.The W.N.B.A. begins its 27th season on Friday with new rules, new rosters and one big return. Here’s what to expect.Brittney Griner is back.After nearly 10 months in detention in Russia, Brittney Griner is playing basketball again.Griner’s detention clouded the W.N.B.A. season last year. She was arrested at an airport near Moscow on drug charges in February 2022, and subsequently convicted and sentenced to nine years in a penal colony. The league regularly paid tribute to her during the season, and her fellow players spoke out on her behalf.Brittney Griner is back with the Phoenix Mercury on a one-year contract after missing the 2022 season while she was detained in Russia.Matt York/Associated PressGriner was released in a prisoner swap in December, and after time spent recovering privately, she signed a one-year contract to return to the Phoenix Mercury.Griner played no basketball during her imprisonment and is still working to get back into game shape. “Everybody tells me to give myself grace and that it’s going to take time,” she said at a news conference in April, “but that’s the hardest thing to do for a pro athlete because we always want to be right back at our top shape.”Griner and the Mercury open their season on Friday in Los Angeles against the Sparks.Star players are joining forces.The off-season was dominated by free-agent signings and trades that established what could be two superteams: the Liberty and the Las Vegas Aces.The Liberty made three key moves: First, they traded with the Connecticut Sun for Jonquel Jones, the league’s most valuable player in 2021. Then they landed one of the top free agents: Breanna Stewart, the 2018 M.V.P., who had won two championships in Seattle. Finally, they signed the league’s active assists leader, Courtney Vandersloot. Those three join the returnees Betnijah Laney and Sabrina Ionescu, who have each made an All-Star team.Breanna Stewart was one of the top free agents. She had been with the Seattle Storm since she was drafted No. 1 overall in 2016.Ethan Miller/Getty ImagesThe reigning champion Aces already featured an impressive collection of talent: last year’s M.V.P., A’ja Wilson (who also won in 2020); Chelsea Gray, the 2022 finals M.V.P.; and their fellow All-Stars, Jackie Young and Kelsey Plum. And then they went and signed Candace Parker, the two-time M.V.P., two-time champion and seven-time All-Star. They also picked up the veteran Alysha Clark, who won two titles with Seattle.The rest of the league isn’t backing down from the superteams. “In the best movies, the underdog ends up on top,” Elena Delle Donne of the Washington Mystics told reporters this month.But still, the Aces and Liberty are far and away the betting favorites to win it all.Rookies look to make their mark.Some of the newest W.N.B.A. players are just weeks removed from finishing their college careers. How they make that transition will be crucial to the fortunes of their new teams.Aliyah Boston was the obvious choice of the Indiana Fever as the No. 1 overall pick in the April draft. Boston, who led South Carolina to a national title in 2022 and back to the Final Four this year, is expected to be a franchise cornerstone for the Fever as they rebuild. Though the competition she faces will be tougher in the W.N.B.A., Boston should be able to score more easily without facing the same double and triple teams she saw in college.With this year’s No. 2 pick, Minnesota drafted Diamond Miller, who led Maryland with nearly 20 points a game in the 2022-23 season. Miller is a versatile and athletic wing who should pair well with Napheesa Collier.Haley Jones, the No. 6 pick in the draft, was a leader for four years at Stanford, including the Cardinals’ 2021 title run. She slots in well on an Atlanta Dream team looking for more playmakers.New rules will add new wrinkles.The league also updated its rule book this off-season.W.N.B.A. coaches will now be able to challenge one — and only one — call per game. Coaches can ask for reviews on three kinds of calls: a foul called on their team, an out-of-bounds call, or a violation for goaltending or basket interference. Coaches will be limited to one challenge even if the challenge is successful, and even if the game goes to overtime.W.N.B.A. coaches, like Seattle’s Noelle Quinn, will have one challenge per game this season as part of series of rule changes.Steph Chambers/Getty ImagesOfficials may also now penalize players for committing a foul during a fast break without making a legitimate play on the ball. For this, a transition take foul, the offensive team will be awarded one free throw, which can be taken by any player on the floor, and the offensive team will keep control of the ball.The W.N.B.A. also has new guidelines governing sideline behavior. In an effort to limit disruptions and distractions, the league is telling players who are not in the game that they may not stand “for a prolonged period.” Players and coaches are also prohibited from “attempting to distract their opponents in an unsportsmanlike manner.” Teams could receive a delay-of-game warning or a technical foul for a violation. More

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      The Liberty Took a Few Jets and a Boat to Become a Superteam

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      Clara Wu Tsai and Joe Tsai, the Liberty owners, improved their facilities and chartered flights, drawing a W.N.B.A. fine — and enticing top free agents.In January, Clara Wu Tsai flew to Turkey on a trip that altered the balance of power in the W.N.B.A.Wu Tsai, who owns the Liberty with her husband, Joe Tsai, went there to chase Breanna Stewart, the off-season’s most coveted free agent. Accompanied by her team’s coach and general manager, Wu Tsai pitched Stewart in the middle of her Euroleague season with a team in Istanbul.But Wu Tsai left the rest of the team’s brass behind as she made the final push. She rented an 80-foot tour boat and took Stewart, Stewart’s wife, Marta Xargay, and the couple’s 1-year-old daughter, Ruby, for a cruise. Gliding through the Bosporus, Wu Tsai reeled in Stewart, the two-time league most valuable player, with questions.“It was just her curiosity that grabbed me,” Stewart told me during an interview this month. “She wanted to know what I needed, what we needed as players, to perform at our best. I could see she wanted to improve the league as much as I do.”After days of cryptic tweets, Stewart announced on Feb. 1 that she would join a Liberty roster that had also added Jonquel Jones, the 2021 league M.V.P., to play alongside guard Sabrina Ionescu, a 2022 All-Star. The four-time All-Star guard Courtney Vandersloot inked with the team the day after Stewart, forming a megateam built to contend with the defending champion Las Vegas Aces — a supersquad in its own right that added the two-time M.V.P. Candace Parker this off-season.“Having a lot of players go to different teams is great because it’s shaking things up where we’re not just in this continuous track, running over and over, playing for the same teams,” Stewart said. “It’s creating a buzz. But there’s something more. Free agency also adds pressure on the owners to compete for us.”The Tsais, whose multibillion dollar wealth comes primarily from Joe’s leadership role with the Chinese tech giant Alibaba, sit at the forefront of the W.N.B.A.’s free-agent arms race, where players enjoy the attention of a group of team owners eager to invest.The former league M.V.P.’s Breanna Stewart, left, and Jonquel Jones joined the Liberty in the off-season, as did the four-time All-Star guard Courtney Vandersloot.Sarah Gordon/The Day, via Associated PressIn Atlanta, the Dream’s Larry Gottesdiener, founder of a real estate private equity firm, said he planned to spend $100 million to turn the team into a success. Mark Davis, who also owns the N.F.L.’s Las Vegas Raiders, recently built a 64,000-square-foot training facility for the Aces and last season signed Coach Becky Hammon to a record contract worth $1 million annually. (On Tuesday, the W.N.B.A. suspended Hammon for two games for comments she made to the All-Star forward Dearica Hamby about her pregnancy, which the league said violated its policy on respect in the workplace. The league also rescinded the team’s 2025 for first-round draft pick for promising Hamby impermissible benefits during contract negotiations.)When the Tsais bought the Liberty in 2019, the team had bottomed out during the last stages of James Dolan’s ownership. The franchise had made the finals in three of the W.N.B.A.’s first four seasons but was pushed out of Madison Square Garden to the 2,300-seat Westchester County Center for 2017 and ’18.After moving the team to Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, which the Tsais own and where their other team — the N.B.A.’s Nets — also play, the couple set out to give the Liberty amenities equal to their male counterparts. There’s an eight-person performance staff — multiple trainers, a sports psychologist and a nutritionist. An in-house chef prepares meals before and after practices and games. Players recover in brand-new hot and cold therapy tubs.Like every other team in the W.N.B.A., the Liberty fly commercial to away games for most of the season. They huddle in cramped seats and endure delays, transfers and cancellations like the rest of us.Tsai bristled at the limitation. So in 2021, he paid for the Liberty to use private jets, then shielded that fact from the league until the team was caught. The result: a $500,000 fine, the biggest in league history. Perhaps not unrelated: In 2021, the Liberty made the playoffs for the first time in five years and then repeated that feat in 2022.The fine was steep, but a point was made by the Tsais, loud and clear: Travel conditions must evolve. For now, the league has settled on a partial change, allowing teams to charter flights for the playoffs and a small number of games during the regular season.It was a key point of agreement for Wu Tsai and Stewart during that nautical conversation. Stewart, a vice president of the players’ union, has also been one of the league’s most vocal proponents for chartered flights, a factor she said played into her free agency decision.Over coffee at a Manhattan restaurant in early May, Wu Tsai — a self-described “hoop head” who grew up in Lawrence, Kan. — said she sees in Stewart a kindred spirit. “It was clear our interests were aligned on the potential” for lifting the Liberty and changing the W.N.B.A., Wu Tsai said.Asked about the travel contretemps with the league, Wu Tsai paused, drew a breath, and measured her comments carefully. “I don’t think you can put your best product on the floor if you’re not really focused on health and wellness,” she said, declining to elaborate.The Tsais, it must be noted, have a complex history. Few team owners in any sport have given as much support to social justice, including $50 million to boost economically distressed communities following the murder of George Floyd in 2020. But Alibaba has been criticized for business ties with Chinese companies said to violate human rights in China. And Tsai once called pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong a “separatist movement,” echoing language from Beijing.The world of sports is hardly immune from contradiction.What can also be said of the Tsais is that support for how they are advancing conditions in the league is widespread among players. The charter planes issue is perhaps the most salient litmus test. Stewart, for one, would play only for a team that is doing all it can to push on the issue until it becomes a reality all season long.She is not alone.“Two things can be true at once,” Jones said. “You can look at it and see what they did with those charters as definitely an unfair advantage. And you also can step back and be like, ‘Wow, at least they were making sure their players were taken care of.’ The Tsais sent a signal, a strong signal, of how much this means to them.”“They treat us as the professionals we are.” More

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      Breanna Stewart Will Sign With Liberty, Joining Fellow M.V.P. Jonquel Jones

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      Stewart, a two-time W.N.B.A. and four-time N.C.A.A. champion, had been outspoken about player travel leading up to the free-agent signing period.After weeks of cryptic Twitter messages featuring an assortment of mysteriously placed emoji as clues, Breanna Stewart finally made her plans crystal clear on Wednesday by posting on social media an image of the Empire State Building with “Stewie” emblazoned across it.One of the most accomplished basketball players in the last decade, Stewart announced she would join the Liberty in one of the biggest free-agent moves in W.N.B.A. history, although the Liberty have yet to disclose details of the deal.Stewart, who has averaged 20.3 points per game over her seven years in the league — all with the Seattle Storm — could form an exciting Big Three along with the point guard Sabrina Ionescu and the power forward Jonquel Jones, who arrived from the Connecticut Sun through a January trade, making the Liberty an instant title contender.By bolstering the roster with Jones, who won the 2021 W.N.B.A. Most Valuable Player Award with the Sun, and the 6-foot-4 Stewart, who was the M.V.P. in 2018, the Liberty endeavor to change their fortunes for good. Despite being one of the original eight W.N.B.A. franchises in 1997, the team has never won a championship. Stewart, meanwhile, has done it twice in the last five seasons, with the Storm winning the finals in 2018 and 2020. She is also a four-time All-Star in six years of play.The Liberty have not reached the finals since 2002, and they have not made it past the second round of the playoffs since 2015. With Stewart and Jones powering the frontcourt and Ionescu feeding them, the Liberty will be tabbed by many to pose a genuine threat to the defending champion Las Vegas Aces, a powerful team that is expected to be even more dangerous with the addition of the star forward Candace Parker.With her skill, size and leadership, Stewart was considered the top free agent in this year’s market, with the chance to tip the balance of power in the league with her decision. She spent weeks tantalizing fans on two coasts with a collection of emojis posted on social media. There was one with a person thinking, a scale and someone juggling three balls. Another featured a crystal ball, a sack of money and an hourglass and one even showed the Statue of Liberty.She finally posted the news that the Liberty had won, including a video of a beaming Stewart removing one shirt to reveal a Liberty jersey underneath while the song “Empire State of Mind” plays in the background. The post was likely sent from Turkey, where Stewart plays for Fenerbahce in the EuroLeague. Many W.N.B.A. players travel overseas in the league’s off-season to earn more money in Europe and Asia. Stewart missed the entire 2019 W.N.B.A. season after tearing an Achilles’ tendon while playing for Dynamo Kursk in Russia.Presumably, the deal with the Liberty will not be finalized until after a physical examination, but Stewart’s performances since her injury indicate she has completely recovered. In the three years since then, she has averaged 20.8 points, 8.4 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game, all roughly the same as her overall career averages. Last year, she led the league in scoring with 21.8 points per game and finished second in M.V.P. voting behind Las Vegas’ A’ja Wilson. She is still a superstar.Stewart matched the W.N.B.A. record for points in a playoff game in a loss to the Las Vegas Aces. Now she will lead the Liberty in an attempt to overtake the Aces.Lindsey Wasson/Associated PressStewart is also an outspoken advocate for improved travel for W.N.B.A. players, even offering to contribute financially to that goal. She posted on Jan. 22, “I would contribute my NIL, posts + production hrs to ensure we all travel in a way that prioritizes player health + safety, which ultimately results in a better product.”W.N.B.A. teams travel by commercial airlines and not by charter flights, as many other professional and college athletes do. Commissioner Cathy Engelbert has said the league cannot afford to pay upward of $20 million each season for charter travel, though the league has allowed it under certain extenuating circumstances. The Liberty were fined $500,000 for secretly chartering flights during the 2021 season.While news of the signing brought joy to Liberty fans, Storm supporters, who had been closely following Stewart’s social media accounts for signs of her intentions over the last few months, were saddened by her departure. One frowning fan posted a selfie of her wearing a “Stewie MVP” shirt, declaring, “I’m so sad.” Another account, attached to Women’s Pro Hockey Seattle, posted crying emojis and, “Noooooooo!”In her last game for Seattle, Stewart matched the W.N.B.A. single-game postseason record with 42 points in a losing effort against the Aces, who advanced to the finals with the win. She went 6 for 8 from behind the 3-point line as she tied Angel McCoughtry, who scored 42 for the Atlanta Dream in a 105-93 victory over the Liberty in 2010.It was also the last game for the Seattle legend Sue Bird, who retired after the season as a 13-time All-Star and four-time champion with the Storm. Now, the Storm are left to forge ahead without two of their most celebrated stars.A native of North Syracuse, N.Y., Stewart was the most south-after recruit in the country in high school and chose to play at the University of Connecticut. She helped the Huskies compile a gaudy 151-5 record and win four straight national championships, including UConn’s last in 2016. She was also named Player of the Year by The Associated Press following her last three seasons there.The Storm selected Stewart with the No. 1 overall pick in 2016. She won the league’s Rookie of the Year Award and within two years had won her first championship. Now the challenge is to come back to her home state and help an old franchise to finally break through. More

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      WNBA Upgrades to Charter Flights for Finals

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      For the first time ever, the W.N.B.A. is providing charter flights throughout the finals. Aces and Sun players are loving it — and hope it becomes permanent.UNCASVILLE, Conn. — There were “oohs and aahs” of excitement as the Connecticut Sun players entered their chartered plane on the way to Las Vegas for Game 1 of the W.N.B.A. finals, guard Nia Clouden said.Waiting for them were pillows and blankets, seats that fully reclined and a generous menu of complimentary food. Clouden typically never eats the roasted salted almonds, cookies, chips and other snacks offered on the team’s commercial flights. But on that night, she ordered a pepperoni pizza.Sun center Jonquel Jones pointed to the long legs that make up part of her 6-foot-6, 215-pound frame to show how the leg room on the charter flight made a difference for her. She usually tries to find the exit row seat on flights, but the space is never enough. Jones said she was also happy to avoid “all the unnecessary stuff that happens at airports.”“Sometimes after a game, you don’t really feel like talking, and you go to the airport and people want to talk about the game,” Jones said while laughing. “Or they want to ask you how tall you are — constantly — all the time. ‘How’s the weather up there?’ And it’s just like, dude, I’m just trying to get to the next destination.”She added: “As much as we love our fans — we appreciate them — sometimes it does really get a little exhausting, and it makes the season a little bit tougher.”This season, for the first time ever, the league agreed to provide charter travel throughout the W.N.B.A. finals. Commissioner Cathy Engelbert has said that the league does not have enough revenue to cover travel for all teams during the regular season and playoffs, which she estimated would cost more than $20 million. Teams fly commercially during the season and playoffs, with rare exceptions for extreme travel difficulties.Athletes in major professional sports leagues like the N.F.L., N.B.A. and M.L.B., and even many men’s and women’s Division I athletes, have grown accustomed to charter travel. But those men’s leagues have been around much longer than the W.N.B.A. and have billions of dollars of revenue, while the women’s league regularly operates at a loss.The W.N.B.A. hasn’t committed to offering charter flights for next year’s finals or expanding them to the regular season or any other part of the playoffs. Engelbert said the league was able to provide charters for the finals because of its efforts to increase revenue.“As we focus on growing this league by adding more corporate partners, increasing media exposure and disrupting the outdated media rights valuations of women’s sports,” Engelbert said in a statement, “it would be our hope to continue offering these opportunities when possible.”More on the W.N.B.A.Swan Song: Sue Bird, who had said she would retire after this season, shepherded the Seattle Storm to the playoffs. The team’s loss on Sept. 7 marked the end of her incredible career.Greatness Overshadowed: Sylvia Fowles, who has also announced her retirement from basketball, is one of the most successful American athletes ever. Why isn’t she better known?A Critical Eye: As enthusiasm for women’s basketball and the W.N.B.A grows, fans are becoming more demanding of the league and more vocal about their wishes.Making the Style Rules: Players in women’s basketball are styling themselves before the games. Their choices are an expression of their freedom, and can be lucrative too.The W.N.B.A.’s collective bargaining agreement with the players’ union prohibits teams from chartering flights without league approval. The Liberty were fined $500,000 for secretly traveling to several games by charter last season.So players fly commercially, dealing with the delays, Covid risks and the many flight challenges that everyday customers also deal with. If you’re wondering why professional athletes should have different travel standards anyway, many W.N.B.A. players said it started with rest.Having a relaxing night’s sleep is paramount for playing in a 36-game regular season — with half of those games on the road — when a player’s future salary and place in the league depend on their performance each night, players said. Rest can be especially challenging on a commercial flight for the tall humans that occupy women’s basketball teams. But more important, delays and flight cancellations can result in teams’ having to forfeit games.The Aces forfeited a game in 2018 after dealing with over 25 hours of delays and layovers on their way to Washington, D.C., to play the Mystics. They arrived just four hours ahead of their game. The Aces cited health concerns as the reason not to play and were the first team in league history to forfeit a game. Las Vegas missed the playoffs, finishing one game behind the Dallas Wings.“I definitely think having charters is a trickle-down effect to people being able to take care of their bodies better and rest,” Aces guard Sydney Colson said. “And then you have better games to watch because people are rested and injury free.”Connecticut’s Jonquel Jones said though she loved the Sun’s fans, it can be challenging running into them at the airport after games when players might not feel like talking.Joe Buglewicz for The New York TimesFor those players who played college basketball for major programs in the United States, the special finals travel is a welcome return to the norm, as many of their schools provided charter flights to all games.“There aren’t many times that I can remember at all that we flew commercial,” said Aces forward Theresa Plaisance, who played at Louisiana State University. “And when you get to the W.N.B.A., and you’re going to your middle seat on Southwest — sometimes it’s really hard to swallow that pill and think like: ‘Oh, this is my progression. I went from college to make it to a professional league, and I have to go backward.’”For Peter Feeney, the basketball operations manager for the Sun, who has handled all flight logistics for the past four years, the simplicity of the travel blew his mind, he said. Feeney typically arrives at airports an hour before the team to ensure that they can pass through security without any hiccups. But on their two charter flights, they’ve arrived at the plane less than an hour before takeoff, and the flight staff handled almost everything.The moment made Feeney realize that if the league switched to charter flights for the entire season, he would become less useful in his role. But he also serves as a video coordinator, so he welcomes the idea. “That’s a good problem, right?” he said with a laugh.Aces forward A’ja Wilson, who has been outspoken about the W.N.B.A.’s travel woes, said that the players had talked about what life would be like if chartered flights were normal after they comfortably made the cross-country trip to Connecticut from Las Vegas for Game 3 on Thursday.“We need it. Ain’t nothing else,” Wilson said. “We need to be able to fly like that after every game. I can only imagine how my body would feel if we did. So, I think it’s a huge deal for us to do it. We need to continue to push it.” More

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      The Sun Get Physical to Stay Alive Against Las Vegas

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      On the brink of elimination, Connecticut locked down Chelsea Gray and got superb performances from Jonquel Jones and Alyssa Thomas.UNCASVILLE, Conn. — The Las Vegas Aces were leading the W.N.B.A. finals heading into Thursday largely because of explosive first quarters. They had outscored the Connecticut Sun, 58-32, in the opening period of the first two games, a number that Sun Coach Curt Miller was well aware of. Before Thursday’s Game 3, Miller said he would “love” for the Sun to have an explosive start and force the Aces to take a timeout.It went the other way. An animated and furious Miller sprinted onto the court just over two minutes into the game as the Aces took a quick 9-2 lead.“I was frustrated, but not discouraged,” Miller said. “We’ve been in that situation before. We are in our home building. We just needed to not lose contact with them before the game settled in.”He added: “It’s scary to take a timeout quickly knowing that you have an eight-minute quarter — the rest of the quarter — without a timeout. But it was needed, and we gathered ourselves, and again, the veterans led through that huddle.”The Sun responded to the quick timeout with a 32-10 run, closing the first quarter with 34 points — a W.N.B.A. finals record — and a 19-point lead as their raucous fans were on their feet, swinging white towels.The Sun went on to defeat the Aces, 105-76, and now trail the Aces, two games to one, in the best-of-five series.Jonquel Jones led the way for the Sun with 20 points and 5 rebounds, and Alyssa Thomas added the first triple-double in finals history with 16 points, 15 rebounds, and 11 assists.Miller said the win showed “toughness,” adding: “You know, a grit, a fight, that we’re not going to go away; that we are going to force Vegas to beat us.”Courtney Williams and the Sun were physical all night, limiting Kelsey Plum and the Aces to 76 points.Joe Buglewicz for The New York TimesThe Sun improved to 4-0 when facing postseason elimination this year. On Thursday, they relied on their height and physicality to dominate the Aces on both sides of the ball. The Sun outscored the Aces, 64-26, in the paint thanks largely to Jones, who won the league’s Most Valuable Player Award in 2021. Jones used her 6-foot-6, 190-pound frame to outmuscle this year’s M.V.P. and Defensive Player of the Year, A’ja Wilson, scoring layup after layup, finishing through contact and drawing fouls.“Jonquel played like Jonquel,” Wilson said. “She’s an M.V.P. She played exactly how she’s supposed to play. I’m not going to take anything away from her. She dominated the game the way that she should.”Jones was dominating with 11 points in the third quarter, but with two minutes left, and the Aces comfortably ahead by 11, Miller removed Jones who had reached four fouls. The Aces quickly went on a 5-0 run, cutting the lead to six. A Brionna Jones layup just before the end of the quarter put the lead back at 8, but Jones stayed on the bench as the fourth quarter began.The absence made an Aces comeback seem inevitable, but the Sun were able to hold thanks to strong play from guard DeWanna Bonner and Thomas. When Jones returned with 7 minutes 35 seconds left in the game, the Sun were up 10. The Aces made a free throw, but Natisha Hiedeman knocked down a 3-pointer that put the Sun up by 12, igniting the crowd.Odyssey Sims, a guard for the Sun, mimicked the “night, night” celebration made famous by Golden State’s Stephen Curry as a way to signal to the crowd that the game was over. Minutes later, the Sun extended the lead to 14, and Aces Coach Becky Hammon began pulling her starters.“This game was about physicality and mental toughness, and they smoked us, period,” Hammon said.Part of the turnaround came from the Sun finally finding an answer for Chelsea Gray, the Aces guard who had stepped up during this postseason. Gray has had numerous crucial moments throughout the Aces’ run, but on Thursday she looked decidedly uncomfortable.The Sun matched the 6-foot-4 Bonner on Gray and aggressively double-teamed her on screens to force someone else to beat them. The strategy resulted in four turnovers from Gray and her struggling to get anything going offensively. In the second quarter, Gray tried to assert herself by pulling up for a few deep 3-pointers, at one point scoring 9 straight points. But that was it for Gray. Her last 3-pointer in the first half was her 11th and final point of the game.“I’m just trying to stay locked in and limit her touches as much as I can, not give her too much room,” Bonner said. “Try to use my length more than anything. I’m a 6-foot-4 guard for a reason, so I just try to use my length, use my speed.”The Aces got 22 points from guard Jackie Young — her highest scoring game of the postseason — and Wilson added 19 points, but just four rebounds. It was the worst defensive game of the postseason for Wilson and, by extension, the rest of the Aces.“We just were not locked in on the defensive end,” Wilson said, adding: “For us to come out and lack that, it was going to be a long game regardless of who we played.” More

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      Aces Score Just Enough to Take W.N.B.A. Finals Lead

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      The Las Vegas Aces’ high-powered offense scored a season-low 67 points, but a double-double from A’ja Wilson, the league’s most valuable player, helped them outlast the Connecticut Sun.LAS VEGAS — The W.N.B.A. finals have many compelling story lines: two franchises, and two coaches, looking for their first title; a high-powered offense taking on a stingy defense.But those story lines faded into the background Sunday afternoon, and it quickly became A’ja Wilson’s day as she led the Las Vegas Aces to a 67-64 victory over the Connecticut Sun in Game 1.Before the game, Wilson received this year’s Most Valuable Player Award at halfcourt with her family and the league’s commissioner by her side. The M.V.P. honor was the second of her career, making her the seventh player in the W.N.B.A.’s 26 seasons to win the award more than once. As the public-address announcer called out the Aces starters’ names, Wilson ran out, high-fiving teammates amid the loudest roars for any player.Then, when the game began, she got to the basket with ease, missing only one shot on the way to 12 first-quarter points. The Aces ended the first quarter leading by 8 points, then were buoyed throughout the game by Wilson’s dominant play. She met the moment with 24 points, 11 rebounds, 4 blocks and 2 steals. Game 2 of the best-of-five series is scheduled for Tuesday in Las Vegas.“She can score the ball, ultimately,” Sun center Jonquel Jones said of Wilson, with a laugh. “She’s able to score on different levels. I think that’s a tough challenge. She’s attacking the rim really aggressively right now. So it’s tough.” Aces guard Chelsea Gray added 21 points, and Alyssa Thomas led the Sun with a double-double of 19 points and 11 rebounds. Las Vegas’s win came on one of its worst offensive nights of the year, with the team’s lowest point total of both the regular season and playoffs. And Aces guard Kelsey Plum, who averaged 20.2 points per game in the regular season, struggled with just 6 points on 1-of-9 shooting.“Credit to their defense, and give credit to us for missing,” Aces Coach Becky Hammon said with a smile.Despite the loss, Coach Curt Miller and the Sun players did not seem dejected afterward, as some teams would be after losing a W.N.B.A. finals game. Miller said he was “really pleased” with how the Sun dictated the style of play to one that they were more comfortable with, forcing the league’s highest-scoring offense to struggle to find baskets. The Sun lost by a close margin despite shooting only five free throws to the Aces’ 19. “Ultimately, I’m happy with the game that we played,” Jones said, “and we gave ourselves a good opportunity to come out there and get a win. And it just didn’t go our way, but we’re excited about Game 2.” But the Aces were looking at the game from a similar perspective. They held the Sun to their lowest scoring total of the playoffs and, even while playing arguably their worst offensive game of the season, they still won. “We do take a lot of pride in getting it done on the defensive side because that’s the most important side,” Wilson said. “They can hold us to however many; we have to also hold them down as well. So if we can play on both sides of the basketball and execute on the defensive end, I got us all the way.”Two years ago, Wilson won her first M.V.P. Award, leading the Aces to their first finals appearance since moving to Las Vegas in 2018 and the franchise’s second overall. But Wilson and the Aces quickly looked like a team unprepared for the moment, as the Seattle Storm beat them by double digits in each game, including a 33-point drubbing in Game 3 to win the 2020 title. Wilson said that they were “happy to be there” in 2020 but that now they were less overwhelmed by the aura of the finals and more focused on the basketball. The Aces’ defense limited the Sun’s Courtney Williams and DeWanna Bonner, not pictured, holding them to a combined 8 points on 3-of-18 shooting.L.E. Baskow/Associated Press“We know that feeling,” Wilson said. “It sucks getting swept. It’s the worst thing ever, but that’s the chip on your shoulder. That’s the fire. That’s the grind that you want to say, ‘I don’t want to get swept anymore. I don’t even want to have a gentleman sweep.’ You want to go out there and play for your teammates because you felt the way that you felt in 2020, and you hate it.”On Sunday, the Aces showed their evolution in the two years since that finals appearance. After the Aces’ strong first quarter, the Sun responded by slowing the game down and using their physicality and height to make scoring arduous. The Sun outscored Las Vegas in the second quarter, 21-9, to take a 4-point lead into halftime.Hammon was furious in the locker room at halftime, more “lit” than she had ever been this season, she said, because “everything we talked about, we didn’t do any of it.” “I don’t even yell in my real life,” Hammon said, adding: “But when you go out there, and you don’t execute, it’s frustrating, but at the end of the day, they know it, OK. They’re smart, they get it. But they beat us in every hustle category. And that can’t happen. You can’t lose a championship or a game or quarter on hustle — that can never be the case.”Gray and Wilson began shaking their heads and laughing before they were even finished being asked to share what Hammon had said to the team. “We cannot. It is unedited. We got children watching,” Gray said with a smile, as Wilson laughed next to her, nearly uncontrollably shaking her head. “But she was just on us to play our style defensively. We were letting them get offensive rebounds, easy scores, turning over the ball,” Gray added. “That’s the edited version. I can’t give you everything.” But the Aces had been in that position before during these playoffs. In their semifinal series win against the Seattle Storm, nearly every game featured dramatic lead changes and comebacks. Hammon said the Aces’ ability to “take a punch” in that series was significant.And it showed Sunday as the Aces reclaimed the lead in the second half and held on, despite a furious rally from Connecticut down the stretch. The Aces found a way to beat the Sun at their own style of basketball to move closer to their first title.“Tonight we struggled a little bit, and we’ll be better Game 2,” Hammon said. “I already know what we’re going to do. My mind is reeling.” More

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      WNBA Finals Preview: Las Vegas Aces and Connecticut Sun Vie for First Title

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      Stars from both teams have been to the finals recently, but neither franchise has ever won a championship. A’ja Wilson of Las Vegas said the “vibe” is different this time.Twenty-three years ago, Becky Hammon and Curt Miller helped lead Colorado State to the round of 16 in the N.C.A.A. Division 1 women’s basketball tournament. Miller was an assistant coach, and Hammon was one of the best players in the country. On Sunday, they’ll match up in the W.N.B.A. finals as opposing coaches, hoping to win their first titles as Hammon’s Las Vegas Aces take on Miller’s Connecticut Sun.“I have an unbelievable personal relationship with Becky,” said Miller, who credits Hammon for his rise in coaching.Hammon, in her first season with the Aces, and Miller, in his seventh with the Sun, go into the finals leading teams with boatloads of success in the W.N.B.A. but without any championship hardware to show for it.The Aces have three former No. 1 draft picks on their roster (A’ja Wilson, Kelsey Plum and Jackie Young) and had four players named to the All-Star team, none of whom were Chelsea Gray, who has been the Aces’ most important player this postseason. On Wednesday, Wilson was named the league’s most valuable player for the second time.Las Vegas Aces guard Chelsea Gray had 31 points and 10 assists in the decisive Game 5 of the semifinals against the Storm.Steph Chambers/Getty ImagesThe Aces have had one of the best rosters in the league for years and finished with the best regular-season record in two of the past three seasons — and finished second in the year they didn’t finish first. But the regular-season success hasn’t translated into the postseason.The Aces reached the championship round in 2020. Wilson has said she was mesmerized by the moment and how thrilling it felt to see the finals logo stitched onto her jersey. But she also can’t forget how it felt to be defeated by the Seattle Storm. The Aces never won a game, and the Storm won the final game of the series by 33 points.Wilson and Young are the only Aces who played in the 2020 finals and are still with the team. (Plum and forward Dearica Hamby did not play because of injuries.) Wilson said the “vibe is different” this time, but for the top-seeded Aces to win the matchup against the third-seeded Sun, they’ll need to get out of their own way.“We get sometimes in our own mind because we’re so talented,” Wilson said, adding: “We want to be that superhero. We want to put that cape on and just win it all and not because for selfish reasons, but because we just feel like we want to do that for our team.”That superhero impulse has often led to isolation play, which the Aces can be great at because of their offensive skill. But it hasn’t translated to winning a championship. Throughout the playoffs, Hammon has praised her team for moving away from that style and “choosing each other.”Wilson said, “I think that’s going to be the difference.” She added: “It’s going to take all of us locked in for 40 minutes on the defensive end more so than the offensive end to win a championship.”An arduous semifinal series against the Storm has helped prepare the Aces for the stakes of the finals. Las Vegas won in four games, but each game came down to the final plays. The Aces found ways to respond to everything the Storm threw their way: a corner 3 from Sue Bird that gave Seattle a lead at home with under 2 seconds left in Game 3; a playoff-record-tying 42-point game from Breanna Stewart in Game 4. Somehow, the Aces came away with wins in both games, often paced by Gray and Wilson in crucial moments.“We developed how to take a punch. Like, that can’t be understated,” Hammon said. “In the scheme of games, of series, there’s going to be these moments that are like make-or-break moments, and you got to decide in those moments where you’re going to be, and earlier we took some punches, and I saw us fall apart.”The Aces’ finals opponent has also responded to proverbial punches to get to the championship round.The Sun scored just 8 points in the third quarter of the decisive Game 5 of the semifinals against the Chicago Sky and entered the fourth quarter down 10 points. They responded by outsourcing the defending champions 24-5 in the final quarter to advance to their first finals since 2019. (That year, the Washington Mystics beat the Sun in five games.)The Sun’s Jonquel Jones, Courtney Williams, Brionna Jones and Natisha Hiedeman all played in that 2019 finals series (along with guard Jasmine Thomas, who has been out with an injury since May). This time, they are leaning on the wisdom of one player who wasn’t on that team to guide them to the title that has long eluded them: DeWanna Bonner.The Connecticut franchise has the second-most wins in league history but has never won a title.The Sun have leaned on DeWanna Bonner’s championship experience. She won titles with the Phoenix Mercury in 2009 and 2014.LM Otero/Associated PressBonner, 35, won titles in 2009 and 2014 with the Phoenix Mercury, who she was with for a decade before joining the Sun in 2020. Because of Bonner’s championship experience, her voice is respected in the locker room, and many believe her inspiring leadership in the playoffs is why the Sun are in the finals, Hiedeman said.“Her speeches been on point lately,” Hiedman said, adding: “We’ve been feeding off of that. She’s a champion. She knows what it takes. So she leads the way, and we follow.”After winning Game 1 of the semifinals against the Sky, the Sun dropped two straight games, and they couldn’t slow down Candace Parker. Miller, the Sun coach, had planned a typical film session for their next practice to analyze mistakes, but Bonner told Miller she wanted to speak to the team instead of watching film. And what followed was one of the famous speeches Hiedeman mentioned.Bonner told the team that they seemed nervous when they were playing and that despite their history — the Sky had beat the Sun six straight times coming into the series — they could win the series if they got off to better starts. In Games 4 and 5, the Sun outscored the Sky in the first quarter 54-38, winning both games to close out the series.Miller said Bonner’s speech was “probably the best decision.” He added, “In that moment, D.B. having a heart-to-heart with our team is what they needed, and they’ve absolutely thrived off of it.”Miller continued: “There will be a new champion in this league. There’ll be a first-time franchise champion. There’ll be a new coach. Once again, that will be a first-time champion. And you know that I’m just, I’m really, really excited about the challenge.” More

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      Connecticut Sun Complete Comeback to Reach W.N.B.A. Finals

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      Connecticut forced a decisive Game 5, then beat the reigning champion Sky and set up a finals matchup with the Las Vegas Aces.The Chicago Sky looked like they were on their way to their second straight appearance in the W.N.B.A. finals. They led Connecticut by 9 points with less than five minutes to go in the decisive Game 5, and had held the Sun to just 14 points since halftime. Sky guard Kahleah Copper was dominating, forcing turnovers, flexing her muscles and clapping her hands en route to a game-high 22 points.But that was it for the Sky: They were held scoreless for the final 4 minutes and 46 seconds of the game. The Sun used an 18-0 run to stun the Sky on their home floor, 72-63, and advance to the finals, where they will face the Las Vegas Aces starting Sunday in Las Vegas.The Sun’s win avenges their loss to the Sky in the semifinals last year. It also ends the Chicago’s quest to become the first team to repeat as W.N.B.A. champion since the Los Angeles Sparks in 2001 and 2002.The Sun were paced by double-doubles from Jonquel Jones (15 points and 10 rebounds) and Alyssa Thomas (12 points and 10 rebounds). Sun forward DeWanna Bonner added 15 points and 9 rebounds.Through the first three games of the series, Chicago’s Candace Parker was nearly unstoppable. She averaged 19 points and 11 rebounds to help the Sky get out to a 2-1 series lead. But in Game 4, the Sun neutralized Parker, holding her to just 11 points and 9 rebounds.And on the offensive side of the ball, the Sun dominated Parker and the Sky from the inside. The Sun have one of the tallest and most physical frontcourts in the league with Jonquel Jones (6-foot-6), Bonner (6-foot-4), Brionna Jones (6-foot-3), and Thomas (6-foot-2); they used that to their advantage to score a playoff-record 66 points from the painted area in Game 4. They beat the Sun, 104-80, achieving a franchise playoff record for points scored in a game to tie the series at two games apiece.Early in Game 5, Chicago’s offense was stagnant, with players seeming nervous to shoot the ball close to the basket for fear of being blocked by one of the Sun’s bigs. The Sun ended the first quarter down just 8 points, with Parker scoreless. In the second quarter, Copper took over. She scored 9 points to bring the game to a 40-40 tie to go into halftime with the momentum on the Sky’s side.Parker continued to struggle offensively, but she was dominant on defense, blocking four shots and grabbing three steals. The Sky held the Sun to 8 points in the third and led by 10 points heading into the final quarter. But the Sky would score just 5 points for the remainder of the game, as the Sun scored 24 to silence the Chicago crowd and advance to the finals. More

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      W.N.B.A. Semifinals Check-In: Can’t. Stop. Candace. Parker.

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      Both semifinals series are tied, 1-1. The Las Vegas Aces and Seattle Storm have shown offensive power, while the Connecticut Sun and Chicago Sky dig in on defense.As Chicago Sky guard Kahleah Copper and Connecticut Sun guard Courtney Williams tussled over the basketball in Game 1 of their W.N.B.A. semifinal series, Sky forward Candace Parker walked down the court, waving her hands in the air to ignite the Chicago crowd. The moment reflected how physical the series had been, and it was reminder of the teams’ history.In 2021, the sixth-seeded Sky beat the top-seeded Sun in the semifinals en route to winning the championship, a title that has that has eluded the Sun. If the Sky win the title this season, they will be the first team to repeat since the Los Angeles Sparks in 2001-2. After the Sky’s 85-77 victory in Game 2, the best-of-five series is tied at one game apiece.Sky forward Azurá Stevens said the series is “just about who wants it more, because they have beef with us from last year.”On the other side of the bracket, the Las Vegas Aces and Seattle Storm are also tied at 1-1. The series features some of the most recognizable names in the league and seven former No. 1 overall draft picks: Sue Bird (2002), Tina Charles (2010), Jewell Loyd (2015) and Breanna Stewart (2016) for Seattle; and Kelsey Plum (2017), A’ja Wilson (2018) and Jackie Young (2019) for Las Vegas.This is a rematch of the 2020 W.N.B.A. finals, in which the Storm swept the Aces and Stewart was named the most valuable player of the series. Stewart also won the award after leading the Storm to the title in 2018. If Seattle wins its fifth championship this year, it will break a tie with the Minnesota Lynx and Houston Comets for the most in W.N.B.A history. The Aces are still looking for their first title.Game 3 in each series is Sunday. Here is a look at how the teams have fared so far.No. 1 Las Vegas Aces vs. No. 4 Seattle StormChelsea Gray has been the Las Vegas Aces’ leading scorer against the Seattle Storm.Ethan Miller/Getty ImagesThe Aces were the best offensive team in the W.N.B.A. this year. They led the league in points per game (90.4) and offensive efficiency (109.6). Four starters averaged at least 10 points per game: Plum (20.2), Wilson (19.5), Young (15.9) and Chelsea Gray (13.7).Through the first two games of the series against the Storm, Gray has arguably been the Aces’ most important player, managing the offense and scoring, and making pinpoint passes at crucial moments. She’s leading the team in points (21) and assists (6) per game during the playoffs.But Las Vegas has struggled in the first quarter.In Game 2, the Aces matched the Storm almost point-for-point in the first seven minutes and got out to a 16-13 lead. Then a 3 by Seattle’s Stephanie Talbot tied the game and sparked a 10-0 run that pushed the Storm toward a seven-point advantage going into the second quarter. The first quarter of Game 1 was similar, as the Aces gave up 26 points and trailed by 11 at the end of the period.Stewart and Loyd combined for 50 points on 52.8 percent shooting in Seattle’s Game 1 win. Stewart dominated most of the game, and Loyd scored 10 of the Storm’s final 12 points and assisted on the other basket. Her most impressive basketball of that tear came with just over 30 seconds remaining in the game, with the Storm holding a 1-point lead and Wilson — the defensive player of the year — guarding her at the 3-point line. Loyd crossed from her right to left hand before stepping back and knocking down a long 2-pointer over Wilson’s outstretched arms.But Loyd struggled in the Game 2 loss.Loyd finished 2 of 10 from the field and 0 for 3 from the 3-point line for just 8 points. While Stewart tallied 32 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists, the only other Storm player in double figures was Charles, who scored 17 points on 17 shot attempts. The good sign for the Storm is that even with Loyd’s struggles, they were in the game until the end.No. 2 Chicago Sky vs. No. 3 Connecticut SunJonquel Jones has helped the Connecticut Sun outrebound the Sky.Michael Reaves/Getty ImagesThe Sky have struggled in Game 1s this postseason, losing both at home. The Sun benefited from that in their semifinal series, but they have felt the pain of playing against Parker.The Sun had the second-best defensive rating in the league in the regular season (96.3), and they held the Sky to their lowest point total of the season in their 68-63 Game 1 victory. But Parker still had an astounding stat line: 19 points, 18 rebounds, 6 blocks, 5 assists and 4 steals. All of that and she had just 2 turnovers.Parker is doing almost everything for the Sky on the floor. She had another impressive stat line in Game 2 with 22 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 blocks in the win. She also hit 3 of 4 3-pointers.The most challenging part about playing the Sky is that on any given night, a different player, or multiple players, could go for 20 points. The stat line doesn’t show Parker’s effectiveness in keeping the Sky’s offensive churning: After rebounds, she often looks ahead to Copper, who is often already behind the defense for a score.The Sky’s roster is among the best in the W.N.B.A., and they breezed to a franchise-best 26 wins because of it. Still, the Sun’s physical frontcourt, with Jonquel Jones (6-foot-6), DeWanna Bonner (6-foot-4), Brionna Jones (6-foot-3) and Alyssa Thomas (6-foot-2), has outrebounded the Sky in the series, 86-65. The rebounding advantage didn’t hinder the Sky from picking up a win in Game 2 and nearly securing Game 1, when Parker had 18 rebounds. But they will need a group effort to neutralize the Sun’s size. More