Now A “Pair Of Aces” Titles, First Repeat WNBA Title Winners Since 2002, Do So Without 2 Starters And As Say, 6 Point U/Dogs– (70-69), At The Liberty, In The #4 Clincher

The Las Vegas Aces have joined the NHL Golden Knights as current “L.V.” champions, “barking” outright say plus 6 without starters Chelsea Gray and Kiah Stokes, an occurrence that moved “L.V.” from an original say, 1 plus point(s) underdog.

Las Vegas prevailed (70-69) at the Liberty’s Brooklyn home, joining the ’41,’49,’52 and ’56 Yankees with at Brooklyn title clinching wins. I like the WNBA but it “ain’t” anywhere near baseball back then, maybe now it is)

A’ja Wilson, pictured here the other day (it will be hard not to do so again, but we/you shall/will see) had 24 points and 16 rebounds in the clincher, while Jackie Young had 16 points and 7 assists.

L.V. coach Becky Hammon, of course doing so in the WNBA, joined Van Chancellor (first 4 years yielded titles for his Houston Comets. Per the headline “L.V.” is the first repeat WNBA champion since Michael Cooper, still shamefully not in the Basketball Hall of Fame, guided the L.A. Sparks to crowns in ’01 and ’02) and the great John Kundla (’49 and ’50 with the Minneapolis Lakers, who went on to win crowns from ’52-’54 and noting Cooper played on 5 L.A. Lakers title teams) to win basketball titles in at least their first two years as a head coach.

The Aces went (8-1) in the ‘offs, the Liberty were (6-4). In WNBA annals, all 18 teams that fell down (2-0) in best of 5 series (5 is the WNBA maximum # of games in a series) lost (0-9) in the final round.

Hail the team, hence the above picture. Wilson was great for a team shorthanded that “road clinched” a basketball crown, however, not really near Johnson (42) and Wilkes (37) when L.A. won at Philly without Kareem in the #6, 1980 title clincher.

She was great, that is for sure.