Sabrina Ionescu's 25 points lead Liberty past Aces, tightening race for top seed

The Liberty and the Aces have gotten to know each other real well in August. They squared off for the fourth time this month on Monday night at Barclays Center. The two WNBA powers have been favored from the opening tip of the season to reconvene in the best-of-five Finals.

Las Vegas has been leading the Liberty in the race to take the top seed and home-court advantage throughout the playoffs.

The days are dwindling, but the race is tightening.

The Liberty took the finale of the regular-season series, 94-85.

They did it behind 25 points from Sabrina Ionescu, 20 points and 12 rebounds from Breanna Stewart, 17 points and 10 assists from Courtney Vandersloot and 17 points from Betnijah Laney. And they did it in front of their largest crowd ever at Barclays — 11,615, a sellout.

So Las Vegas’ lead is down to 1 1⁄2 games. The Aces are 30-6. The Liberty are 28-7. The Liberty have five games left and the Aces have four, but three of those are against Seattle and Phoenix. Both are out of the playoff chase and are a combined 19-50.

“I think we play really well on the road, so it’s not something we’re afraid of doing,” Liberty general manager Jonathan Kolb said. “But obviously if we can achieve a No. 1 seed, that’s a major goal . . . ”

The Liberty won three of the four August matchups — by an average of 22 points — although the Commissioner’s Cup championship game victory at Vegas didn’t count toward the standings.

Overall, in games between the two teams that did count, it was a 2-2 split.

So are they now parked on the same level with the Aces?

“I think so,” Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said. “I think we’ve earned that now. At the start of the year, I think no. They were the champions and they earned it. We’ve showed we can beat them. We beat them on their home court, which is really not easy to do.”

The energy in the stands at the Liberty’s home court adds fuel, though. “We go as they go,” Ionescu said.

The Aces went ahead 16-7. Then Ionescu scored 10 to power a 15-3 run to close the period, giving the Liberty a 22-19 edge. They were on their way to making that a 31-10 eruption.

When Ionescu fed Laney for a layup, it was 38-26.

Ionescu drilled a three to give the Liberty a 47-35 advantage at the break. Ionescu nailed another three to inflate the lead to 58-39 in the third.

Las Vegas chipped it down to 70-58 heading for the fourth. But Stewart — who broke the franchise’s single-season record for rebounds, which stood at 321 — opened the period by knocking down a 12-footer and a 17-footer to start a 7-2 burst that quickly made it a 17-point game.

Jackie Young, who scored 24, hit consecutive threes, cutting it to 90-82 with 1:24 left. But that’s as close as it got.

“We missed some assignments and people get hot,” Aces coach Becky Hammon said of that 31-10 distance run. “There’s not a lot of room for error against this team. Too much firepower.”