The Barclays Center has hosted its first basketball champion, but not from one of its residents.
After what started as a hopeful Game 4 win for the Liberty and ticket back to Las Vegas for a decisive Game 5 on Friday, turned into another familiar late-game 70-69 loss from an aggressive, yet depleted Aces squad on Wednesday night.
Without Chelsea Gray and Kiah Stokes, the Aces still managed to earn back-to-back titles – the first in the league since the Los Angeles Sparks in 2001-2002 — in an unconventional fashion compared to their norm, but it didn’t matter in the end.
A’ja Wilson led the Aces with a double-double (24 points and 16 rebounds, both game highes), followed by Jackie Young and Cayla George with 16 and 11 points respectively in front of Barclays Center crowd that included Sue Bird, Jason Sudeikis, Nate Burleson, Issa Rae, Fat Joe, and members of Gotham FC.