Despite history with Liberty, Aces are all business for playoff series

If there is no love lost between the Las Vegas Aces and New York Liberty, that implies that there were no emotions between the two teams in the first place.

While the West Coast vs. East Coast showdown has dominated WNBA headlines over the past year — and will once again with the two teams meeting in WNBA semifinals — the Aces aren't harboring any past emotions against the Liberty. 

"I feel like we're two completely different teams," A'ja Wilson said. "We're not the same team as last year or two years before. I don't think necessarily I'm harping on that too much (on the past) as to what goes on in there." 

After the Aces swept the Seattle Storm in the first round, coach Becky Hammon said the Liberty were playing like a team "pissed off," but clarified that didn't mean emotional. 

Hammon believes New York has played "contained" on the court this season when it comes to emotions. The Liberty are in the bottom four in the league in technical fouls with eight, five of which have come from two players: Sabrina Ionescu (three) and Jonquel Jones (two).

"They've (Liberty) played very organized," Hammon said. "They've played very disciplined, so they're not an emotional team where they get way too high or way too low."

"They're just about business, and I think there's some really great qualities about just being about just being about business." 

One player who has embodied that the most is Breanna Stewart, who has paced the Liberty this season with 16.5 points and 8.5 rebounds. Hammon said Stewart's facial expressions don't change if she's having a bad night or dominating. 

"She (Stewart) could be dropping 50 on your head, and you would never know it," Hammon said. "When you think about it, they (Liberty) have a lot of poker faces."

And the Aces want to have a similar approach as well of treating these games as business through and through. 

 "I don't really care about facial expressions and emotions," Hammon said. "I want to be about the business. I want to be about the content of the basketball game. The meat and potatoes. Spit out the bones." 

While the Liberty brings a stone-faced look to the court, it doesn't mean they aren't thinking about the past. Unlike the Aces, the Liberty have been forward in talking about just how much losing the 2023 WNBA Championship to Las Vegas has sat with them. 

"We went to the championship and we lost," Jones said in an article published by ESPN on Friday. "There's always going to be a little bit of a residual effect from that."

"When you have experiences, you can revert back to 'em," Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said to ESPN. "It's a memory. It's a part of how hard it was and how hard it is."

The Liberty's resentment of losing in the finals last season has lifted them as the favorites to win this season's WNBA Championship, but the Aces have gotten to where they are now based off of short-term memory. 

Las Vegas was 6-6 to start the year playing without one of its star guards, Chelsea Gray, and struggled consistently on defense. Off the court, former player Dearica Hamby filed a discrimination lawsuit against the team as well.  

The Aces went 0-3 against the Liberty in the regular season, and Wilson even broke down after a 90-82 loss to New York on June 15. But leaving that all behind has allowed the Aces to find their playoff form once again.

"I feel like it's more so on their (Liberty) end, just looking from another competitive side," Wilson said on past matchups between the Aces and Liberty. "I feel like they would feel some type of way. When it comes to us, I don't think we're feeling anything. We just need to go in and just do us."