WNBA Playoffs: Breanna Stewart embodies the Liberty’s emotional center as they advance to the finals

LAS VEGAS – Every time the Las Vegas Aces started to creep back in, Breanna Stewart was there.

Forcing MVP A’ja Wilson into a hard shot and getting the rebound in quickly. Jackie Young is blocked at the edge. She tipped in her own miss to make a seven-point run heading into halftime. Sabrina Ionescu and Jonquel Jones perform for a sharp 3-point shooting matinee.

Marta Xargay, Stewart’s wife, was also there. From her seat under the basket, she questioned the lack of calls during the physical game taking place just feet away from her. She celebrated the Liberty’s ability to keep their heated rival away for at least one possession, eventually putting it away for good in the fourth quarter.

As the buzzer sounded Sunday after a 76-62 Game 4 semifinal victory that sent the Liberty back to the WNBA Finals, the two embraced in a tearful embrace.

“It was definitely emotional,” Stewart said.

The day between Games 3 and 4 was the one-year anniversary of father-in-law Josep Xargay’s death, a moment forever intertwined with a postseason performance that fell below Stewart’s standards. The two-time MVP did not play well against the Aces in the Finals last season and wanted to be different this year. Salvation fell into her and Liberty’s laps.

“Marta talked about doing whatever her dad would want us to do, and we’re going to continue to do that,” Stewart said. “And you know, I have receipts of the things that were said – the whole team does – but basically my mentality today was to go in and get this win for my wife and her dad.”

The Liberty and Aces became direct rivals last year as the league’s superteams, and while they respect each other, the teams don’t like each other. In 2023, the heat was largely simmering beneath the surface and Las Vegas had the final say, celebrating its back-to-back championship on the Liberty’s home court, Barclays.

During the championship parade in Las Vegas, Aces head coach Becky Hammon called out Stewart’s poor shooting performance and told the crowd, “Three-for-17, you need to talk about it.”

It drew the ire of fans, especially in recent months when Stewart opened up about the grief of losing her father-in-law during the most important annual period of her career. But until Sunday afternoon, when the task of deposing the two-time defending champions was repeated over and over again, there was nothing going on for either side as each team largely kept it to themselves.

“We talked a lot last year,” Hammon said, later adding that it wasn’t personal. “I’m sure they heard it, and they gave us a blow this year.”

Hammon never hesitated to call the Liberty, who locked up the No. 1 seed, the best team in the league this season. Their improvements shone at home in Games 1 and 2 as Stewart and then Ionescu individually raised their play from the final. Once again in Game 4, the duo took over and made the necessary adjustments.

Ionescu found her pockets and scored a game-high 22 points, shooting 50% overall and going 5-of-8 from 3. She shot 3-of-3 from 3 to set the tone in the first quarter and led the Liberty by seven points in the fourth quarter in what has become her closer role in this series.

Stewart recorded a second postseason double-double in a full stat line of 19 points, 14 rebounds, five assists, four blocks and one steal. She wasn’t very efficient (8-of-21 from the floor), but had more of an impact on the game, moving the ball up, locking down guard Kelsey Plum and setting up the Liberty in intense moments.

Stewart ended all Aces momentum-shifting runs after labeling the 16-0 Aces run in Game 3 as “ridiculous” on Liberty’s part. The most crucial moment came in the fourth quarter of a stressful one-possession game.

Young, whose game-opening 3 was the Aces’ only lead, hit a half-court shot late in the third quarter that sent the crowd into a frenzy and would have given them the lead back, 54-53. After review, the score was taken off the board because it was after the buzzer. The Liberty rallied at intermission, not wanting to take this series to a Game 5 in New York.

“They ran away,” Stewart said. “Whether they had momentum or not, we were going to take it back.”

Ionescu scored on a cut, and Leonie Fiebich, who faced foul trouble, scored her own goal on a pass from Stewart. Courtney Vandersloot, an addition off the bench after Sandy Brondello moved Ionescu to point guard, drove in for a bucket.

Minutes into the fourth quarter and with a 59-53 lead, Stewart Plum blocked for Xargay but was called for a foul. Stewart immediately called on head coach Sandy Brondello to challenge it, the Liberty won (and are 3-for-3 in the semifinals after challenges), and Stewart blocked Plum again on the ensuing Aces possession.

The Liberty continued it in a 23-11 frame that looked a lot more like Liberty basketball than the choppy, error-filled first three quarters. Jones and Fiebich each committed three fouls at halftime. Jones quickly reached four in the third, Fiebich in the final minutes of the quarter, and Jones played a fifth with 4:49 remaining in the game and the Liberty leading by 14.

That could have sunk the Liberty, as they were missing two starters from their long lineup that Hammon has likened to an NBA roster. Instead, Brondello credited Jones with maintaining her “emotional stability” and keeping the floor spaced out as she reentered the game. The Liberty outscored the Aces in paint points, 30-28, and destroyed them on the glass, 48-27.

Defensively, they helped the Aces to their worst field goal percentage in the playoffs (32.8%) over the last three years and one of their worst performances from 3-point range (7 of 30, 23.3%). The 62 points were a season low. A’ja Wilson (19 points, 10 rebounds, five blocks), Plum (17 points) and reserve Tiffany Hayes (11 points) were the only Aces in double figures.

“At the end of the day, we didn’t get it right shooting-wise,” Hammon said. “I thought we looked good. We missed. And the (giving up) layup thing started happening again in the fourth quarter. If you look at the sheet, you can’t beat a team like that by shooting 32%, 23% from 3 and then absolutely get your ass on the glass.

The Aces enter their first offseason under Hammon without a championship parade and now face questions about how they will raise another banner.

“We’ve never had exit meetings,” Hammon said. “We did exit parties.”

Signing early extensions became the norm for the Aces superstars, but Plum did not re-sign and is an unrestricted free agent, as is Alysha Clark. Kiah Stokes, who missed both games in Las Vegas with a concussion, is on an unprotected contract and has not been an offensive asset.

The roster will look different after the league’s first back-to-back champions in two decades. The Aces fell short of their goal, but remained satisfied with the fight and the challenge.

“Three-peat is hard. It’s extremely difficult,” Wilson said. “It’s just one of those things where it seems like everyone is hunting you. And every play is a back-to-the-wall type of game. Because you get the first punch out of everyone, you get the best punch out of everyone, and sometimes you have to resist that. And over the course of 40 minutes and over the course of the season, that’s very difficult to do.”

New York has defeated the queens, but is not yet wearing a crown. There is no great satisfaction to be found here.

“We haven’t done anything yet,” Stewart said, echoing the team’s long-running refrain. “This has been a tough series, an emotional series for a number of different reasons, but we’re going to the Finals.”