Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu lead New York to another statement win in the WNBA playoffs

NEW YORK — Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammon had the scouting report ready when asked how her two-time reigning WNBA champions match up with the New York Liberty this time around.

“They’re big, we’re fast,” Hammon said in the hours before the league’s most star-studded rivalry was renewed again on Sunday.

Well, the big team can play fast, too. New York jumped out early and rarely looked back in Game 1 of this WNBA playoff semifinal series, winning, 87-77.

As usual, stars Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones, and Sabrina Ionescu led the way. Stewart had 34 points, Ionescu had 21, and Jones had 13 points and 12 rebounds.

» READ MORE: After dominating the WNBA’s regular season, the New York Liberty know it’s time to go win it all

Stewart and Jones also contained Aces star A’ja Wilson, this year’s unanimous MVP, such as any team can. Wilson had 21 points but had a season-low six rebounds.

“She had to work for all those points that she got, and when you’ve got ‘J.J.’ and ‘Stewie’ out there, we could just throw a few different looks at her,” New York coach Sandy Brondello said. “I think that just made her a little bit uncomfortable. Let’s hope we can slow her down in Game 2 as well.”

That was all to the delight of a raucous crowd of 14,015 at the Barclays Center, with courtside celebrities including Spike Lee, Jason Sudeikis, and Tracy Morgan. Lee enjoyed aiming some trash talk at Aces star Kelsey Plum, who enjoyed talking back and scored a team-high 24 points.

“I can’t say exactly what was said, but I told him that he should talk louder,” Plum said with her usual charisma. “It was all well and fun, and really cool that he’s here. … I know he’s a big sports fan, so it says a lot that he’s in the building and that he respects the game.”

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The rematch of last year’s finals, this time a round earlier, had been highly anticipated ever since the playoff bracket opened up the possibility. It didn’t take long to happen, as both teams swept their first-round matchups, and Sunday’s game was promptly set for a network TV broadcast on ABC.

Both teams are happy to embrace the storyline at the peak of one-game-at-a-time season.

“The experiences that we had last year, that’s an opportunity for development,” Brondello said of the Aces’ win in four games, with the title clinched on the Liberty’s floor.

She called this year “our biggest year of growth” of the three she’s been in charge. Hammon said she’s seen the same thing from afar.

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“That stuff matters, and I think it’s been a separation factor for them,” she said. “I think they’ve played like the best team all year, I think they played like the [angry] team all year, as they should. And that kind of edge … They have scars, and that can be a really powerful bond.”

There’s still plenty of work to do before the Liberty can finally claim their long-awaited first championship. But they have put down a marker so far this year: the best regular-season record, a first-round sweep of the Atlanta Dream, and now this.

“It’s the pressure that we’ve all put on ourselves, from the top down, to be able to put the best team together and compete for championships,” Ionescu said. “We’ve done that the last two years. Obviously, this year’s the chance that we’re looking for to get past just getting there, and winning.”

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To no one’s surprise, South Jersey-born Cheryl Reeve of the Minnesota Lynx won the WNBA’s coach of the year award after steering her team to second place this season.

Reeve won 62 of the 67 votes in the vote of media nationwide. It’s the fourth time she has won the award, after 2011, 2016, and 2020.

The La Salle grad also won the league’s basketball executive of the year award, since she’s the Lynx’s president of basketball operations.

In the other major honor announced Sunday, Minnesota star forward Napheesa Collier won defensive player of the year, topping a field including Aces star A’ja Wilson.

Minnesota hosted the Connecticut Sun in Game 1 of the other semifinal series on Sunday night. Reeve is aiming for her fifth WNBA title as a head coach, which would set a league record, and her first since 2017.

Game 2 of both semifinal series will be Tuesday night in Brooklyn and Minneapolis, at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., respectively. Both will be televised on ESPN2.

» READ MORE: Minnesota’s Cheryl Reeve is named WNBA coach of the year