The first two meetings between the Las Vegas Aces and New York Liberty were among the highest-scoring games in WNBA history, but those were played at night when players are more accustomed to suiting up.
The third meeting will be an 11 a.m. affair in New York, and both teams will hope to keep their offenses going Thursday morning when the Aces visit the Liberty.
The teams are meeting for the third time in eight days, and the first two meetings began at 7 p.m. local time. On July 6, Sabrina Ionescu recorded a triple-double of 31 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists in New York’s 116-107 win at Las Vegas.
The first meeting was the highest-scoring game in league history, and the teams played another one Tuesday in a different type of contest. The Aces (16-7) held a 24-point halftime but wound up being forced to hold on for a 107-101 victory.
Kelsey Plum, the MVP of Sunday’s All-Star Game, scored 27 points. A’ja Wilson added 23 and Jackie Young contributed eight of her 23 at the free throw line, where the Aces were 34 for 35 to set the league record for free throw percentage with more than 30 attempts.
“It’s kind of like a new season,” Plum said. “I thought that we had some really good stretches, but we’re still yet to string together 40 minutes of good basketball.”
New York (9-14) is playing the first of three straight late-morning games as it will visit Connecticut and Washington next week for pre-noon contests.
The Liberty nearly pulled off the comeback Tuesday thanks to Ionescu. Ionescu scored 21 of her 27 points in the fourth quarter once she figured out a defense that often pressured the star guard.
The Liberty scored a WNBA-record 73 points in the second half. Ionescu set a record, too, for most points in the fourth quarter.
Ionescu’s fourth-quarter output set a WNBA record for points in the final period in regulation.
“If we played the first half the way we played the second half, we’re winning this game by a lot,” Ionescu said. “So, it shows what we are capable of and what we need to do but it wasn’t enough tonight.”
