Barclays Center was packed with a crowd of 14,015 people last night as the WNBA fans witnessed the New York Liberty defeat the Las Vegas Aces 87-77 in Game 1 of the semifinals. It was a much-awaited rematch between the two last year’s WNBA Finalists where the Aces lifted the trophy right in front of the Liberty logo. Needless to say, it was an emotionally charged game. But former pro Lisa Leslie believes there is one big difference in New York’s play style this year.

As Las Vegas aims for a three-peat, New York looks for their first championship trophy. They came close last year, and the sting of the defeat was such that the Liberty has arguably been the best team in all of 2024. As the first seed defeated the fourth yesterday, Leslie spoke with Kelley O’Hara on Just Women’s Sports, “This is the thing that’s different. In the past, when the New York Liberty have played in playoffs, championship situations, they play off of a lot of emotion.”

“But the emotions always die out, to me. Now they play with a lot of emotion but they didn’t let the emotion become a distraction to their focus and to their will to win,” Leslie continued. The Liberty didn’t let the Aces ever take a lead on the scoreboard, even jumping ahead by as many as 18 points in the third quarter, and proved their sweep of LV in the regular season wasn’t a fluke. Hence, when Stewart mentioned that they did not watch last year’s film but did check their emotions, she was correct.

During her own playing career, Leslie famously prevented the Liberty from taking the Championship in 2022 with the LA Sparks. It was the same season when Lisa Leslie became the first W player to ever dunk in a game.

Now that she’s retired, the 3x MVP speaks more freely about the current game, and she’s impressed. But Leslie also warned, “I like that but they’re gonna have to maintain it, because it’s only one game. They can go like, ‘Oh we finally did it’ and then Aces are like, ‘You got one.'”

She might praise NY but Leslie is also a huge fan of A’ja Wilson. This best-of-five series could go either way, even though stats predict that teams that go ahead 1-0 in a best-of-five series win 77% of the time (27-8 record), per ESPN. Then again, it’s not just any team the Liberty are playing against. “But don’t forget, all they have to do is win one in New York. So game 2 is actually even more important because it’s gonna be tough to win in Las Vegas,” Leslie continues.

In yesterday’s game, Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu shone with 55 points combined. On the other hand, A’ja Wilson seemed almost normal after her superhuman feats all season long. But Lisa Leslie still believes the 2024 MVP has the potential to surpass even her.

Even A’ja Wilson’s ‘normal’ stat line has Lisa Leslie smiling

In Game 1, Stewart and Ionescu combined for 55 of the Liberty’s points while Wilson and Kelsey Plum had 45 points. In the same video, Lisa Leslie goes on to talk about Wilson’s numbers and even laughs about how some said that it was the MVP not playing well. “You’re so used to her carrying the team that by her having a ‘normal’ stat line of 21 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists,” says the WNBA legend, pointing out how these are great numbers for most players.

But Leslie also points out, “Which goes to show you, they weren’t gonna let A’ja beat them and that is the key to this whole series. If you want to beat the Aces, you better find somebody else to win the game for the Aces. But you can’t let it be A’ja because she can do it.”

While the Liberty have been the top team overall in 2024, no one has played like A’ja Wilson. But at the same time, one player does not make a whole team. The rest of the LV Aces are also going to fight in Game 2 despite no home-court advantage. As Lisa Leslie pointed out, it won’t be easy for New York. In fact, if the Aces end up taking this game, it will be harder for the Liberty to gain control of the series. Whether they will fall to their rivals again, this time in the semifinals, or whether Las Vegas will say goodbye to a third consecutive Championship, is something only time will tell.