The lights were bright at Michelob ULTRA Arena as the Las Vegas Aces walked in with the odds in their favor. ESPN’s projections gave them a 55.7% edge. Nobody expected the Aces to lose. However, once the ball tipped, it didn’t take long for the New York Liberty to flip the script and walk out with an 87-76 win. But A’ja Wilson had no interest in sugarcoating what went wrong.

“It was just one of those nights. Getting up 18 clips, the ratchet works. I was just shooting some blanks,” she said in the post-game conference. “It’s just one of those nights, and it sucks; it stinks. But at the same time, I think everybody in this room knows it ain’t going to be too many of these. So just to bounce back, we got a game coming up, and I’m going to try to turn the page, too. I’m going to sit in this.

“My parents are probably going to give me a hard time about it, but hey, it’s all right,” she added.

A’ja Wilson has been one of the best scorers this season with her league-best 25.7 points per game average. But she ran into her coldest outing yet at the worst possible time for the Aces.

The 29-year-old finished the night with 16 points on 7-of-18 shooting, struggling to find rhythm as New York’s length and perimeter pressure crowded her touches all night.

But it wasn’t just Wilson; even her teammates never fully settled into their usual offensive flow.

The Aces shot just 8-of-27 from deep, including a rough start where fans saw them miss 13 of their first 15 attempts from beyond the arc, while the Liberty stayed in control behind Breanna Stewart’s 20-point performance.

“It takes a second to get used to the size (of New York) and a feel for them,” Aces head coach Becky Hammon said post-game. “We are going to look at this as a learning point, but I thought we missed a lot of good looks.

Now, while A’ja Wilson & Co. did try to make a comeback in the last quarter of the game by outscoring the Liberty 25-20, this push just wasn’t enough to undo three quarters of Liberty’s dominance.

So with this loss, the Aces have now dropped five games in 2026. But this wasn’t just another regular-season defeat – it was a preview of what’s coming next.

The matchup carried added significance because it served as a tune-up for next week’s Commissioner’s Cup final in Brooklyn, where the Liberty and Aces will meet again with a share of the tournament’s $500,000 prize pool on the line. New York entered the contest looking for a response of its own after a narrow 98-97 loss to the Los Angeles Sparks, a game that exposed some of the inconsistency head coach Chris DeMarco had been trying to eliminate.

“The biggest thing is just consistency, putting together 40-minute games, offensively and defensively,” DeMarco said before the start of the Liberty’s West Coast trip. Against Las Vegas, New York delivered exactly that, controlling the game for long stretches and avoiding the late-game collapse that had plagued them against Los Angeles.

Both the Aces and Liberty are now headed for a rematch in the Commissioner’s Cup final in Brooklyn on June 30 – a stage both of them know well, and both have already conquered in the past.

The Aces lifted the Cup in 2022, followed by the Liberty in 2023. This only tightened their rivalry, especially after Las Vegas eliminated New York en route to the 2023 WNBA title. And now, both teams sit at the top of their conferences again.

Their paths to this year’s final have only reinforced their status as the league’s elite teams. New York swept through Commissioner’s Cup play with a perfect record and a conference-best plus-68 point differential, while Las Vegas edged out the Minnesota Lynx for the Western Conference spot behind another dominant Cup campaign from Wilson.

Wilson averaged 27.7 points, 10.1 rebounds and 3.3 assists during Commissioner’s Cup play while also leading the Aces in steals and blocks, further showing why her quieter outing against the Liberty stood out so sharply. On the other side, Stewart powered New York’s Cup run with averages of 21.2 points, 9.2 rebounds, and 3.0 assists per game, setting up yet another marquee chapter in one of the WNBA’s defining rivalries.

But while Tuesday night didn’t decide anything long-term, it did add another layer to a matchup that already doesn’t need much help building tension.

With the Liberty owning one of the league’s best records and the Aces close behind in the standings, the June 30 showdown is shaping up as more than just an in-season championship game. It is increasingly being viewed as a potential preview of a future WNBA Finals matchup.

So for now, the goal for A’ja Wilson and the Aces is simple – reset, regroup, and get ready for the one that actually matters. Because if this game was any indication, New York’s size will be something to worry about.