The WNBA season has reached it's climax and the New York Liberty will face off against the Las Vegas Aces in the finals of the 2023 season.
Both teams have had a fantastic campaign and know they are just three wins away from being crowned champions of the world, but will know they have got an incredibly tough task ahead to claim the victories they need on the court.
We will take a look at the series and break down the teams, providing you with our best free WNBA betting picks to see if we can earn you some extra cash while you enjoy the action.
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Las Vegas Aces vs New York Liberty series information
- Best of 5 series
- Game 1: Sunday, 8 October 2023 - 15:00 ET
- Game 2: Wednesday, 11 October - 21:00 ET
- Game 3: Sunday, 15 October 2023 - 15:00 ET
- Game 4 (if necessary): Wednesday, 18 October - 21:00 ET
- Game 5 (if necessary): Friday, 20 October - 21:00 ET
Las Vegas Aces season so far
Las Vegas had a spectacular regular season as they went 34-6, with four of those losses coming in their final 15 games after dominating the competition.
Aces started the season with a 7-0 run, where A'ja Wilson was the highest-scoring player for the team in four of those wins. Their first defeat came away at Conneticut in game 8, before they went on a mighty impressive nine-game winning streak to extend to 16-1.
They then suffered a close defeat to Dallas for their second defeat of the season before once again putting together an impressive eight-game winning streak. August saw them drop four games against New York three times over and the Los Angeles Sparks, before then ending the regular season with four straight wins.
In the playoffs they came up against the Chicago Sky in clean sweep in their best-of-three series with two dominant wins in the first round, before the semi-finals saw them then sweep Dallas in a best-of-five game series to make it to the finals.
New York Liberty season so far
New York had a really strong season once again as they held a regular season record of 32-8 for the campaign, where they ended the season with a mightily impressive 13-2 run.
The opened the season with a defeat to Washington Mystics, but then won their next four games with Brianna Stewart top scoring in each game. They then went 7-3 in their next ten games, followed by two four-game winning streaks separated by a single defeat to Dallas.
August saw them go 9-1 with their only defeat coming against Vegas, immediately after they beat Vegas in the Comissioners Cup final.
In the playoffs they beat Washington 2-0 in the first series thanks to an overtime win in game 2 where Stewart once again top scored, before winning the semi-final series 3-1 against Conneticut after losing the first game to make it to the finals.
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WNBA Picks: Las Vegas Aces to win the series
This is the game that everyone has been waiting for all season, with both teams slated as the favorites in the pre-season to get to the finals and neither team slipping up along the way.
The Aces have home-court advantage in the series and including the Commissioner's Cup, they've only lost twice at home all season. But to make things that little bit more interesting, one of those defeats came against the Liberty.
Without Candace Parker, the Liberty went 3-1 against the Aces in the final months of the season and all of their wins were comfortable. But during the playoffs, the Aces have clearly looked like the better team.
It should be noted however that their path to the finals was much easier; they played the two worst defensive teams in the playoffs, while the Liberty played two of the best.
Statistically, there's not much to separate these teams, who were at or near the top in most categories. The Aces are a better defensive team overall, take better care of the ball and get to the line more often. The Liberty have better ball movement, are much better at offensive rebounding and shoot more 3s. It's a real clash of styles.
In terms of depth, the Liberty clearly have the better bench, as we saw in the Commissioner's Cup championship, when Marine Johannes turned the game on it's head. However, it's not clear how much that will really matter in this series. Both teams have largely been going only six deep when it matters, with Kayla Thornton coming off the bench for the Liberty and Clark doing the same for the Aces.
The safe pick is just to take the Aces. They're the defending champions, have home-court advantage and have been the best team in the league this season. There is better value with the Liberty, but Las Vegas have the experience at this stage of the season in getting over the line and they'll likely do it in a series that goes the distance.
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