Breaking down Liberty, Aces' divergent paths since 2023 WNBA Finals matchup

On Sunday, the defending champion Las Vegas Aces will travel to Brooklyn to face the top-seeded New York Liberty in the last Finals rematch of the regular season. The Liberty won the first two without too much trouble, establishing themselves as the best team in the league in the process.

New York enters at 28-6, and will soon claim the No. 1 overall seed for the playoffs, while the Aces, even with their current four-game winning streak, are stuck in fourth place at 22-10.

Now, with the two rivals on course for a semifinal showdown in this season's playoffs, the third and final meeting will either reassert the Liberty's dominance or give the Aces some confidence that they can still make a run at a threepeat. Ahead of tip off, which is set for 4 p.m. ET on ESPN, here's a look back at how we've gotten to this point.

Offseason changes

Aces have key departures, injuries

One of the major reasons these two teams' paths have diverged came before the season even started when future Hall of Famer Candace Parker announced her retirement. The news came as a major surprise considering Parker had signed a new one-year contract just months earlier. There's no way to truly replace someone like Parker, but the Aces never even had a chance to try since her decision came well after free agency had wrapped up.

The rest of their offseason was rather uneventful. They brought back Kiah Stokes and Sydney Colson , signed Megan Gustafson and drafted Kate Martin . That quartet is averaging 9.2 points per game this season.

Another issue in Las Vegas was Chelsea Gray's foot. The veteran point guard had fractured it in Game 3 of the 2023 Finals, and was ruled out indefinitely. Both her and the team were certain she would return this summer, but no one knew exactly when, which left the Aces starting the season without two key members of last season's title team.

Liberty re-sign stars, make key addition

The Liberty, meanwhile, had a much busier winter. Marine Johannes decided to stay in France, Stefanie Dolson left in free agency and Epiphanny Prince retired. None of them were significant producers in the playoffs, though, which softened that blow.

On the flip side, they re-signed reigning MVP Breanna Stewart and former MVP Jonquel Jones , inked Leonie Fiebich to a rookie contract and bolstered their depth with Kennedy Burke and Ivana Dojkic . With those moves, they returned their top-six scorers from last season's Finals run and were fully healthy for the start of the campaign.

Fiebich has been the biggest difference maker of the new additions. The 24-year-old German has made a smooth transition to the WNBA, giving the Liberty a versatile wing they can trust on both sides of the ball.

Defensive flip

When the Aces won their first title in 2022, they did so behind a dominant offense. Last season, while they could still score with ease, it was the defense that led the way. Thanks in large part to Candace Parker's presence, the Aces had the best defense in the league.

Even without Parker for the postseason, they were extremely locked in on that side of the ball, and boasted a 92.7 defensive rating in their championship run. In the title-clinching Game 4 win on the road, they held the Liberty to just 69 points and 36.1% shooting.

The Liberty's defense, on the other hand, was solid, but unspectacular. More than anything, it was unbalanced. Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones were formidable in the paint, but their perimeter defense was too easily picked on.

This season, it's been the opposite.

The Liberty have the best defense in the league through Sept. 6, allowing just 94.8 points per 100 possessions. They have more chemistry than they did last season, when the team was thrown together at the last minute, and thanks to Fiebich's arrival they have more size and versatility on the perimeter. The Liberty don't force a ton of turnovers, but they don't cough it up much themselves, which limits opponents' fastbreak opportunities. They also rarely foul and control the glass.

Out West, the Aces have struggled to stop opponents with any level of consistency. Early in the season, a frustrated Becky Hammon declared, "our defense sucks." It hasn't gotten much better. In fact, their defensive rating is slightly worse after the Olympic break (101.7) than it was beforehand (100.3).

"I'm not going to call anybody out, but some of our big studs were not guarding tonight," Hammon said after their Aug. 21 loss to the Lynx . "Until we get our defensive identity, we're going to continue to struggle. We made so many mistakes, and it was my big dogs making mistakes."

Aces' overreliance on Wilson

A'ja Wilson is in the midst of one of the best individual seasons we've ever seen. After narrowly missing out on her third MVP award last season in a historically close race, she has left no doubt that she will be taking home that trophy this time around.

Her 27.3 points per game would be the highest single-season average ever by a wide margin, and she's second in rebounds (11.9), tied for second in steals (1.9), first in blocks (2.7) and sixth in field goal percentage (52.7).

Wilson also has a 30.9% usage rate, which is second in the league and by far the highest of her career. She has two 40-point games, 11 30-point games (one away from tying the single-season record), and is on pace for the first 1,000-point season ever. Of her 34 career outings with 20 or more field goal attempts, 15 have come this season. All told, she has scored 31.5% of the Aces' total points this season, which is the highest share of a team's scoring by any one player.

Between Parker's retirement, Gray's injury and sub-par play in her return and major drops in efficiency from Jackie Young and Kelsey Plum , the Aces have often relied on Wilson to bail them out. She's capable of doing so -- in the last weeks alone she has a buzzer beater against the Sky and a go-ahead jumper in the final minute versus the Sun -- but it's no surprise the Aces haven't been as successful as they were last season when they had a more balanced attack.