The Las Vegas Aces are set to return to New York for the first time since they defeated the Liberty in the 2023 WNBA Finals .
The two rivals will play at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York on Sunday at 4 pm ET. There was plenty of bad blood between the two powerhouses last year, stemming from a quote given by Aces star Kelsey Plum on the Liberty's style of play.
"I think we knew we hadn’t played our best basketball. We also knew that, as much as they’re a team, they’re not a team, if that makes sense," Plum said. "They’re really good individual players, but they don’t care about each other. And you can tell in those moments. They revert back to individual basketball.”
Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu played the series hurt after sustaining a hip injury against the Connecticut Sun in the Conference Finals - she even vomited during Game 4 against the Aces. She had some fighting words back for Plum.
“[What Plum said] couldn’t be further from the truth. I believe that I’ve never been on a team that’s been more committed to one another than what has been like this year," Ionescu said.
"We had players from all over come together in such a short amount of time and commit to one another — commit to role changes — to try to win. And for a team as new as we were with so many different role changes to come in and be in the Finals is unheard of.”
Ionescu was backed up by teammate Jonquel Jones: "[Plum is] not in our locker room. She doesn’t know what goes on in our locker room. I think it’s easy to kick people when they’re down and you’re up. And, honestly and truly, to me, it felt kind of classless. You won a championship. You get to celebrate. You get to talk about things that your team did to be successful."
Facing a slew of backlash online, Plum was forced to apologize. “Since the media wants to do clickbait, imma cut this drama out right now so we can move on and be in peace," she tweeted . "What I said was taken extremely out of context. I was trying to articulate my teammates and I have been through a lot and we used our bond to get over the hump.
The two teams squared off in Las Vegas twice earlier this year and the Liberty ran out 90-82 and 79-67 winners. Jones scored a career-high 34 points in the first meeting as the Liberty lengthened the gap in the standings between the two teams.
Last season, the Aces finished with the best record in the WNBA -- two games ahead of the Liberty. This season is a different story: the Liberty hold the top spot as the Aces sit in fourth place a distant six games back.
Sunday's matchup could very well be a 2024 WNBA Finals preview. The Aces enter the game on a three-game win streak but are only 5-5 in their last 10 games.
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