WNBA Finals: With Aces missing Chelsea Gray and Kiah Stokes, the series momentum shifts to Liberty

NEW YORK — Chelsea Gray rolled down the sidelines on her scooter as the Las Vegas Aces warmed up for practice at Barclays Center on Tuesday. In her hand was a small speaker, rather than their usual large bluetooth boombox, attempting to fill a space expecting to hold another 17,000-plus fans in a sellout for Game 4 the next night.

“I didn’t know our speaker was hurt, too,” Gray said, wheeling back and forth between groups of players for mini bursts of musical accompaniment.

The 2023 WNBA Finals, which the Aces lead 2-1, completely shifted momentum when Gray, their “point gawd” and 2022 Finals MVP, exited in the final minutes of a Game 3 Aces loss to the New York Liberty on Sunday. She was in clear pain in the tunnel to the locker room, and the Aces canceled a shootaround at the last minute Monday.

The shift hardened when the Aces took the court late for their Tuesday practice, which was held on the main court instead of Barclays Center’s practice court where the Liberty practiced. Gray was expected to be in a boot, but it was starting center Kiah Stokes who was one of the first ones out on crutches with her right foot in a boot.

Aces head coach Becky Hammon said Tuesday morning before practice that Gray and Stokes were ruled out for Game 4 with “foot injuries.” Both were officially listed as out, along with Candace Parker, on the Aces’ injury report Tuesday evening. Hammon said Gray and Stokes are questionable for Game 5.

Stokes said she felt she might be able to go for Game 4, but was waiting on information from doctors to hear a prognosis on pain she experienced after the game. Gray, whose left foot was in a boot and had the scooter, said she’ll be able to see about her Game 5 status when they return to Vegas.

“I’m bummed for Chelsea and Kiah, obviously,” Hammon said. “It’s a big blow [in] big moments for them and to not be able to be out there, that’s a killer as a competitor to be sidelined by an injury. But it is what it is. You gotta go and just play.”

The Finals was expected to be a dogfight of heavyweights in the Aces, a homegrown super-team of three straight No. 1 picks, and the Liberty, who added three All-Star starters via trade or free agency. They had split the regular-season series, 2-2, and the Liberty won the Commissioner’s Cup in Las Vegas. Their games were largely tight until one side ran away with a victory.

And that largely remained the case in the Finals, excluding the Aces’ blowout of the Liberty in Game 2. That put them one win from a repeat championship, which only two teams prior have completed. All they needed was one win in three tries.

Back home at Barclays Center with a new fighting mentality, the Liberty controlled Game 3, but never fully pulled away enough to be content in a game between two teams that can score in droves, as Hammon has said repeatedly. The Aces trailed by six with 4:49 to play when Gray sustained the non-contact injury guarding Breanna Stewart near the elbow. The sweep was there for the taking.

Now, the Liberty have momentum, confidence, another sold-out crowd and an opponent missing two of its starters. Las Vegas was already without free-agent signing Parker, who has been out since July after foot surgery.

“I’ll have to see if she can suit up, maybe,” Hammon said. “I’m just dropping lots of nuggets. Now you know how my mind doesn’t turn off.”

Parker, who is out of her boot, was not at the media viewing portion of practice Tuesday and has not been in them throughout the Finals except on media day in Las Vegas. She attempted a half-court shot at the end of practice then, but was clearly favoring the foot. The team has also been without guard Riquna Williams, who had a back injury and then was arrested on domestic violence charges.

They will have eight players available in Game 4 of the Finals. Half have averaged fewer than seven minutes per game in the postseason. Sydney Colson, Kierstan Bell, Alaina Coates and Cayla George averaged fewer than 12 minutes a game in the regular season.

“All I’ve said is we just need to continue to be who we are. That’s it. We continue to be who we are,” Hammon said. “This group has been forged out of adversity. They weren’t put together based on super-team expectations. They sucked for a long time. They’ve been through those thin years. They’ve earned this moment. They’ve earned this opportunity. Now it’s just on us to go grab it.”

Gray is an extension of Hammon, who was also a point guard, on the court and said everything has been largely the same while they’ve prepared in the days since Game 3. The nine-year veteran is often in huddles writing up plays or with Hammon helping the bench players in practice. She is what makes the league’s best offense hum effectively and efficiently.

“I probably will still call things from the bench, honestly,” said Gray, who averaged 15.3 points and 7.3 assists in the regular season. “Because that’s just what I’ve been doing and that’s what they have looked at me to do. Especially baseline, sideline stuff. It’ll be interesting. I will probably not have a voice at the end of the game. I will be hoarse because if they can’t hear me all the way down there, I will be screaming.”

She asked for a megaphone to cut through the noise Wednesday, when it will be far louder than the mini speaker she carried.

“Her mind and her voice, the way she makes adjustments and what she sees out there is crucial for us,” guard Kelsey Plum said. “She’s not going to be out there doing it herself, but she’s going to be echoing to someone who can not try to fill her shoes, but attempt it.”

Gray’s vision is unmatched in the WNBA and she’s commonly on highlight reels hitting behind-the-back assists while looking away from her target. Her clutch shots in the 2022 Finals helped seal the franchise’s first championship. Plum will do more of the ball-handling in Gray’s absence with guard Jackie Young also carrying some of the load.

“I trust her eyes and what she’s gonna see out there is really going to help me,” Plum said. “Definitely going to stay in close quarters with her and just be leaning on her and seeing what she sees out there and be ready.”

Colson, a veteran reserve guard, will also be in the mix. Colson said her preparation for Game 4 isn’t any different than another game and neither is the team’s focus on playing together to close out a title.

“It’s the same thing as if people were to get in foul trouble and the next person up still has to be ready to do your job,” she said. “My approach isn’t any different.”

The Aces will also be heavily hampered defensively with the injuries. Stokes, their 6-foot-3 center, is the Aces’ defensive backstop and said ahead of the series she takes pride in taking the physicality if it means keeping it away from 2022 league MVP A’ja Wilson. Wilson won a second consecutive Defensive Player of the Year award last month and shared the moment with Stokes because of her defensive help.

Stokes said she didn’t notice anything in particular during Game 3 because “there’s always pain everywhere,” but when she woke up the next morning, she felt an issue. On Tuesday, she said woke up with more pain that led to the boot for practice.

“It’s just one of those things where I didn’t really expect anything, now we’re here, and yeah. It kind of sucks,” said Stokes, adding the situation with a boot on her foot “looks hella dramatic.”

The 6-4 Wilson will now be tasked with controlling the paint against the Liberty’s frontcourt of 6-6 center Jonquel Jones, who has been the Liberty’s best player in the Finals, and 6-4 league MVP Breanna Stewart, who started to get her offensive mojo back in Game 3.

“It’s gonna be definitely difficult, but it was gonna be difficult regardless, even if me and Chelsea were 100% good to go,” Stokes said.

George, a 34-year-old veteran from Australia, could see larger minutes in her place after averaging 2.3 points in 8.6 minutes per game. She’s a four-time WNBL champion in Australia and won the 2023 league MVP.

Coates signed a hardship contract in August and has played 41 minutes for the Aces, 10 of which have come in the playoffs. Bell, a second-year player out of Florida Gulf Coast, averaged the most minutes off the bench (11.8) after Sixth Player of the Year Alysha Clark, who will take a more prominent role. Clark, the team’s most veteran player after Parker, won two championships as a starter with the Seattle Storm with Stewart in 2018 and 2020.

“We do have pure professionals on the bench, so they’ve known the game plan from the start,” Hammon said. “They’ll be locked in ready to go and impact the game in a positive way.”

The Liberty practiced and spoke with the media before the Aces. Head coach Sandy Brondello said she hoped Gray would play and they’re preparing as if she would. But they also were preparing as if she wouldn’t play.

“That’s also complacency, so we talked about that,” Brondello said. “Even if she is out, that’s an opportunity for someone else and this is a team that’s been here before. We’ve got to make sure that it’s all about us and the intent. We’ve got to be very intentional about what we do.”

The Aces are the team without two starters, but they’re also the ones 40 minutes away from a championship. The series has shifted in the Liberty’s favor, but they’re still on the brink of elimination with two more to win, including one back in Las Vegas. No team has come back from down two games to win a championship.