NBA laboratory, the WNBA already has its tournament with the Commissioner’s Cup, and the poster was superb Tuesday night in Las Vegas with the Aces, reigning NBA champions, opposed to the New York Liberty of Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu and Marine Johannes. To everyone’s surprise since Becky Hammon’s players are flying over the regular season, and they were undefeated at home, it was the Liberty who won, and in the big widths: 82 – 63 !
Born in 1997, the birth year of the WNBA, the Liberty had never won a trophy in its history. “That’s why we all came here. We came to win matches and play for the title. reacted Stewart. “One of our goals was to win the Commissioner’s Cup and it’s done! »
As with the NBA Cup, each Liberty player leaves with a nice check of 30,000 dollars, and this is the case of Marine Johannes, who finished top scorer in the final with 17 points in… 14 minutes! The French Liberty made her 3-point address speak, while Jonquel Jones signed a new big double-double: 16 points and 15 rebounds! Enough to take home the MVP trophy.
Breanna Stewart blackens her record
It was at 3-points, like Johannes’ 5 of 7, that the Liberty made the defending champions bend. First to sign a 15-5 at the end of the 3rd quarter with the address of Kayla Thornton to take the lead (56-48). Then it was Ionescu, with two winning shots in a row, who drove the point home to give a 14-point lead (66-52). The Liberty signs a 15 of 35 from 3-pointers, against 5 of 26 for the Aces.
Earlier in the month, in Brooklyn, the Liberty had humiliated the Aces (99-61), and this second success in a row logically makes it the number 1 opponent of Becky Hammon’s players, who still retains first place in the WNBA with 27 wins in 30 matches, including 24 wins and 6 losses for the Liberty.
If this cup is the first award across the Atlantic for Johannes, for Stewart it is one more trophy in an already exceptional record: four NCAA titles, two WNBA titles, two Commissioner’s Cups and two Olympic titles!
