Liberty top Aces; 1st to win 2 Commissioner's Cups...
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- New York Liberty defeated the Las Vegas Aces 93-85 at Barclays Center to become the first franchise to win two Commissioner's Cup championships since the in-season tournament debuted in 2021.
- Sabrina Ionescu scored 26 points, 10 more than her previous 2026 season high, hitting five of the Liberty's seven 3-pointers including the dagger with 15.7 seconds left in just her eighth game since returning from a back injury.
- Breanna Stewart finished with 25 points, 11 rebounds, four assists, two steals and two blocks, becoming the first player in league history to win three Commissioner's Cup titles (Seattle 2021, Liberty 2023, 2026) and the first to claim multiple Cup MVP honors.
- Jackie Young scored 31 points for Las Vegas, setting a new championship-game scoring mark (no player had previously scored 25), and shouldered a heavier load in the absence of injured four-time MVP A'ja Wilson.
- Las Vegas missed their first 13 three-point attempts, stormed back from down 17 early in the third quarter to take a two-point lead early in the fourth, before New York's 15-2 run sealed it.
- New York controlled the physical margins with a plus-12 rebounding differential and double the Aces' free-throw attempts (29-14), snapping a four-loss rut in their last five games.
Why it matters: The win doesn't count toward WNBA standings, but it gives a Liberty team that had underperformed in the first half of the 2026 season a tangible identity-anchoring moment heading into a championship push; for the Aces, losing their Cup final without A'ja Wilson exposes how thin their margin becomes when their MVP is unavailable, a vulnerability that will shape their rotation decisions for the rest of the season.
