New York Liberty forward Breanna Stewart and Aces guard Chelsea Gray will look for more Commissioner’s Cup final success on Tuesday night in Las Vegas.
Stewart was named Most Valuable Player after leading the Seattle Storm to the title in the inaugural event held in 2021. Las Vegas won the league’s signature in-season competition last year, with Gray taking home MVP honors.
Players from the winning team earn $30,000 each and the MVP receives an extra $5,000.
Stewart is as good a bet as anyone in a game packed with stars to walk away with the extra dough. Her 42-point outburst in Sunday’s 100-89 win at Indiana made her the first player in league history to score at least 40 points three times in the same season.
And the Liberty enter as one of only three teams to pin a defeat on the Aces this year. In the teams’ last meeting on Aug. 6 in Brooklyn, they outscored Las Vegas 50-17 in the second half for a stunning 99-61 blowout.
“Great teams use home court advantage a lot,” Stewart said.
The Aces are proof of that. They have won 20 consecutive regular season games on their home floor, including an 86-65 defeat of Atlanta Sunday night. After a slow start, they got going in the second half for 50 points to subdue the Dream’s upset bid.
A’ja Wilson scored a game-high 21 points for Las Vegas despite needing 22 shots to get there. She was coming off a career-high 40-point performance on Friday night against Washington, two games after New York limited her to nine points on 2-of-14 shooting.
“When it comes to me, career-low or whatever my numbers are looking like, I could care less about that,” Wilson said after the loss in New York. “Because that’s not going to shatter my confidence.”
The Aces won the teams’ first meeting this year 98-81 on June 29 in Las Vegas.
This game between New York (24-6) and Las Vegas (27-3), the first two teams to clinch playoff berths this season, does not count in the overall standings.
