The WNBA’s “Super Teams”, the New York Liberty and Las Vegas Aces, will begin their best-of-5 Finals series Sunday in Sin City. Photo by Brandon Todd/New York Liberty
Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello never fully bought into her squad’s “Super Team” title this year.
Now, she has to.
And her team will get a chance to see if their worthy of being called WNBA champions for the first time in franchise history.
“I didn’t particularly like the ‘Super Team’ thing,” Brondello admitted as the Liberty continued preparing to meet reigning title-holder Las Vegas in Game 1 of the best-of-5 WNBA Finals Sunday at Michelob ULTRA Arena.
“It’s a promotion for the WNBA. We’re playing the champions from last year,” she added.
The media, oddsmakers and the league have been anticipating this clash of “Super Teams” since May, when the WNBA tipped off its first-ever 40-game regular season.
The Aces (39-6) swept past Dallas in their semifinal series and the Liberty (36-9) took out Connecticut in four games to set up the long-awaited clash, which will open in Vegas for the first two games before returning to Downtown Brooklyn on Sunday, Oct. 15 for Game 3.
“We’re going to the Finals because we’re going for a championship,” said WNBA Most Valuable Player Breanna Stewart, who signed with New York as a free agent this winter after winning a pair of titles with Seattle.
“We have the entire city behind us and we know that that’s really special. We still have home games left in Brooklyn.”
The Liberty and Aces are well-acquainted, having met five times during the campaign, including for the Commissioner’s Cup crown on Aug. 15.
New York took its first-ever championship hardware by stunning Vegas on its home floor, 82-63. The teams split their four regular-season encounters, with each defending its turf.
“I think it does help,” Brondello said of the familiarity of facing the Aces four times down the stretch. “I think it helped us a lot to…
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