How the Liberty can challenge the Aces in first of four August games - ESPN

The Las Vegas Aces and New York Liberty will clash in what might be a WNBA Finals preview, playing throughout August and starting Sunday (3 p.m. ET, ABC/ESPN App).

This weekend's matchup at Barclays Center is the first of four games between the WNBA's top two teams. The Aces beat the Liberty 98-81 in their first meeting in Las Vegas on June 29.

They play again Aug. 17 in Las Vegas and Aug. 28 in New York — plus the Commissioner's Cup final, which is Aug. 15 in Las Vegas.

It might seem like too much of a good thing in one month. The Aces-Liberty meetings ideally would have been more spread out, but the WNBA schedule was released in November, long before the offseason moves in January and February that transformed the Liberty into the perceived top challenger for the defending champion Aces.

«You're going to have to get better by watching film,» Aces guard Chelsea Gray said of the multiple matchups with the Liberty in a short time span. «With this type of scheduling, there's a lot of times when you're not going to have that much practice time. If you are, you're getting shots up and going through things at 50 percent because you want to save your bodies for game time. Learning on the fly and learning by watching is going to be important.»

So let's zero in on the Aces (24-2) vs. the Liberty (20-6). While it feels like league-leading Las Vegas could be penciled in for the Finals, the Aces have dealt with some adversity: Center/forward Candace Parker is out indefinitely after foot surgery and guard Riquna Williams is suspended from team activities after her arrest on domestic violence charges.

New York is in second place, but only one game ahead of the Connecticut Sun, the team that seems best positioned to possibly disrupt