Life has to be good for Mark Davis right now. He’s pushing the game of basketball forward with the two-time reigning WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces, and his Raiders are an improbable 3-3 with two one-possession losses.
Davis got his boogie on after the Aces clinched their latest championship in a 70-69 thriller over the New York Liberty on Wednesday night. Look at this man GO.
Good for Mr. Davis. He’s trying to stay young and hip. I appreciate that. In this particular instance, he looks simultaneously 25 and 65 years old (with the haircut of a 6-year-old in 1993). I’m struggling to reconcile all that in my mind…
That came on the heels of a frantic finish in which the Liberty had a chance to force a rubber-match Game 5. Thanks to some sound half-court defense and a hell of a contest on that last-second corner 3, Las Vegas prevailed.
To be honest, lots of the Aces players’ celebrations were pretty lit. This is borderline worthy of a NSFW label depending on how much of a prude you are (kidding, kind of).
It was necessary to put Davis up as the main figurehead for this post, because he’s tied to the NFL; pro football generally equals major interest this time of year and so on. That said, the WNBA is doing quite well on its own merits of late.
For instance, check out how much viewership spiked in Game 3 of the WNBA Finals:
A’ja Wilson won Finals MVP for Las Vegas and was dominant in the decisive Game 4 with 24 points and 16 rebounds. Already building a heck of a legacy at age 27.
New York’s Breanna Stewart has won that very award twice before, but shot only 3-for-17 from the field. Had Stewart performed a little better, we’d likely have seen the series extended.
The Liberty nevertheless did well to emerge as a juggernaut and give the defending champion Aces a real push in the Finals. Both squads lost fewer than 10 games during the regular season, which made for an epic showdown in the WNBA’s grand finale.
It’s clear at this point that the Aces own the Western Conference, but it was most impressive how New York pushed past the Connecticut Sun, who played in last year’s WNBA Finals. Connecticut won 20+ games in six of the past seven seasons, going 27-13 in 2023.
With the Aces, Liberty and Sun going strong, some very lucky non-playoff team will have the luxury of acquiring Iowa sharpshooter/playmaker Caitlin Clark in the 2024 draft. Clark is among the most exciting prospects of all-time, with frequent comparisons to Steph Curry. Sure seems like the WNBA is headed in an exciting direction.
We’ll see if Davis is still breaking it down a year from now as Las Vegas goes for a three-peat.
