Young Gunned; Las Vegas Aces Top New York Liberty in WNBA Finals Opener

The New York Liberty kept pace with the Las Vegas Aces in Game 1 of the WNBA Finals but a frigid fourth quarter put them on the wrong end of a 17-point defeat.

Viva Las Vegas, the New York Liberty found out the hard way on Sunday afternoon.

After keeping pace with the defending champions for two periods, the New York Liberty were outlasted by the Las Vegas Aces in the third and fourth quarters of the WNBA Finals' opening game. The first contest of a best-of-five battle fell in Vegas' favor, as they earned a 99-82 victory at Michelob Ultra Arena.

Breanna Stewart paced the Liberty with 21 points while Jonquel Jones (16 points, 10 rebounds) picked up her seventh double-double in seven postseason games. That wasn't enough to counter three earners of at least 20 points each for the hosts: Kelsey Plum and Jackie Young led the way with 26 apiece while Chelsea Gray had 20, one ahead of A'ja Wilson. The lead trio's 66 points were the most by any three in any three-woman group in WNBA Finals history. 

Marine Johannes (23) sustained the Liberty in the early going but they failed to contain Jackie Young (0) and the Aces' other scorers / Brandon Todd, NY Liberty

"We can obviously learn a lot from this and we know we can play better," Brondello said of Sunday's game, the Liberty's first WNBA Finals endeavor in 21 years. "That's what we have to remember. We haven't lost two in a row all season long and we're going to respond in the right way. I trust these players and we're going to keep competing and fighting."

An eventful opening half ended on the Liberty's side, even as Jonquel Jones worked off some early ankle pain. Marine Johannes put in 14 first half points in less than 11 minutes off the bench while Jones was in the locker room, allowing the Liberty to inch out to a lead that got as high as eight over the first 20. Jones herself returned to action shortly after and built the foundation for her latest double-figure outing with 12 points and nine rebounds.

But Las Vegas' efforts over the latter portion, ones that saw them outscore the Liberty 53-33, pushed their lead out to as much as 22, much to the delight of the partisan Sin City crowd, a sellout at 10,300. Gray, Plum, and Young earned all but 15 of Vegas' tally in that span while the defense shut down New York's famous three-point shooting to the tune of a 1-of-9 effort in the second half. 

"In the second half, the ball stopped and got stuck a little bit and that made it easier for them to kind of clog the paint on JJ or myself," Stewart said. "We just need to continue to keep moving and just trust what got us here."

"I think they got a little bit more aggressive and congested more," Brondello said of the second half. "They were trapping, just moving around, but they were getting out and running in transition. They got a lot of confidence and just got some easy baskets at the rim. We were a little flat-footed, they caught us out a little bit. They moved the ball, they got a lot of good one-on-one players. That's the task. We'll better in the next game."

Johannes was limited to just under nine minutes in the latter stages and Brondello credited Las Vegas for cleaning up its defense through aggresiveness.

"Marine came out and was Marine. She's had some big games against this team and she was making shots," Brondello said of Johannes. "What they did in the second half was they dropped her, they took the ball out of her hands, which is what I would have done, too."

"They rotated, credit to them. Their defense was as good as I've ever seen it, but we've got to play a little bit better poised and (figure out) how we can exploit it next time and come around because they did rotate a lot. I'm surprised we had 11 turnovers. It felt like more."

Jones said she left for the locker to get her ankle taped but was otherwise "feeling good."

Game 2 of the series will be staged on Wednesday night in Las Vegas (9 p.m. ET, ESPN).