'A wake-up call of how good we can be' - Liberty trounce Aces by 38 - ESPN

NEW YORK — In a meeting of the WNBA's two so-called superteams, the new-look, resurgent New York Liberty announced their arrival on Sunday with a statement 99-61 win over the defending champion Las Vegas Aces — the 38-point drubbing representing the largest loss by a team holding the WNBA's best record in league history.

It was also the Aces' largest defeat since the franchise moved to Las Vegas in 2018.

Since February, it has been widely expected that New York and Las Vegas would duke it out for the 2023 WNBA title. The first-place Aces have had the upper hand all summer, losing just twice through 26 games and handily defeating the Liberty by 17 in the teams' first meeting in June. A competitive rivalry between the two championship-minded squads had yet to materialize.

But on Sunday in Brooklyn, the Liberty — a team that may have taken some time to come together — said not so fast, cementing their status as a championship threat.

«We just proved to ourselves what we're able to do,» guard Sabrina Ionescu said. «We've set the level of how we need to play every single game in order to be at our best… we're not sitting here jumping for joy that we beat them. It's just a wake-up call of how good we can actually be, and that's the standard of New York basketball. Now we have to continue to get better throughout the next month.»

Sunday also featured the best attendance — a 11,418 sellout — for a Liberty game since the organization first started playing at Barclays Center in 2021.

Entering the game, the Aces' largest deficit of the season was 23 points; they trailed by as many as 42 against the Liberty on Sunday. And despite its history of allowing opponents to go on runs and climb back, New York stayed locked in on both ends