Sabrina Ionescu sends a message to the Aces in 99-61 victory

Since the start of the season, the New York Liberty and the Las Vegas Aces were projected to be the two teams that will see each other deep in the playoffs. With the playoffs around the corner, the Liberty had a chance to give the Aces their third loss of the season and tie up their series match up 1-1. In order to do that they would have to slow down Aja Wilson, Chelsea Gray and Kelsey Plum.

New York stormed out the gate on a 8-0 run, led by Sabrina Ionescu and Courtney Vandersloot. Both players were active on both sides of the floor and put their teammates in position to score easy buckets. The game intensified for both teams late in the first quarter. Wilson had three blocks and Breanna Stewart had her own block party with two blocks.

You would think it would be the Stewart show, but Ionescu was on fire in the first half. Ionescu took advantage of her match up with Plum and took her to the spin cycle, as well as hit her with pocket threes. At one point, Ionescu went on an 8-0 run by herself. Ionescu finished the half with 23 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 assists.

Even though New York had a 49-44 lead going into the third, they wanted to get Stewie going and more touches to get her into rhythm and wanted to keep their foot on the gas. In the first three minutes of the third, Liberty extended their lead to 12. Everything seemed to be clicking for New York, but they knew that they could not be conservative. The three-point shooting for Liberty was something serious. They shot around 50% from behind the arc in a much-needed victory over the Aces.

Ionescu finished with 31 points

Stewart finished with 23 points, and five assist