September 27, 2024 

Locked on Women’s Basketball: Aces vs. Liberty rematch

Host and Liberty beat writer Jackie Powell is joined by The Next's Las Vegas Aces beat writer Matthew Walter

It’s time for another episode of the Locked on Women’s Basketball podcast! In this episode, host and New York Liberty beat writer Jackie Powell is joined by The Next’s Las Vegas Aces beat writer Matthew Walter to discuss the impending 2023 WNBA Finals rematch as New York and Las Vegas will open up a best-of-five WNBA semifinals series beginning on Sunday, Sept. 29, at 3 p.m. ET on ABC.

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The duo discussed what makes this rivalry important and hyped up, how much has changed in the last year since last season’s finals matchup, and then they finished with a preview of the rematch series itself and some rapid-fire predictions.


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Here at The Next, in addition to the 24/7/365 written content our staff provides, we also host the daily Locked On Women’s Basketball podcast. Join us Monday through Saturday each week as we discuss all things WNBA, collegiate basketball, basketball history and much more. Listen wherever you find podcasts or watch on YouTube.


Matthew Walter putting the rivalry and its hype in context this season as opposed to previous years:

The two teams, every time they played, it seemed like the whole world was at the game. It was on national television, and they had all the reporters … from every outlet that you could name, including ours. And it was so hyped, and everyone was there. And then this year, right? The narrative changes a little bit: Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese come into the league. Everyone’s talking about these rookies that everybody loves, and they have been great. And this narrative sort of takes a sidestep.


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Matthew Walter on what makes this Aces team different than last season:

I would say this year the biggest change is the aces are deeper than they’ve ever been. So the “core four” [Wilson, Gray, Plum and Young] is well known. Those four all stars, phenomenal players. They can put the ball in the basket at any point in a game. Last year, you had Alysha Clark and Kiah Stokes still there. But then after that, the drop off to the rest of the Aces players was not high level. It was Cayla George, who obviously hasn’t stuck around … Kierstan Bell’s still on the roster, but doesn’t play a huge factor. There just wasn’t as much depth.

So this year, replace Cayla George with Megan Gustafson, who has not played a ton, but when she’s played, has been impactful, and her ability to space the four from the five spot really helps the aces, because they don’t get that from someone like Kiah Stokes.

Then the Aces went and pulled the rabbit out of the hat, and they got Tiffany Hayes to come out of retirement. Tiffany Hayes has showed up in an Aces uniform and looks like she’s like 28 and not 34 or 35. She looks as good as she did last year in Connecticut.

To stay up to date with every episode of the podcast, subscribe on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. For all of our WNBA coverage, click here. To read Jackie’s coverage of the Liberty, click here. To read Matthew’s coverage of the Aces, click here.


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Written by The Next

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