Liberty vs. Aces: Marine Johannes Drops Career-High 27 as New York Routs Short-Handed Las Vegas 111-71

On Broadway, they at least slip a little notice into your program when the stars are out for the matinee. The Las Vegas Aces delivered theirs before tip-off on Sunday, sitting A'ja Wilson, Chelsea Gray and Jackie Young to rest, and what followed at Barclays Center was less a basketball game than a very loud, very long dress rehearsal for the New York Liberty.

Marine Johannes came off the bench for a career-high 27 points, buried seven 3-pointers, and New York flattened Las Vegas 111-71 in front of 17,082. By the team's count, that is the third-largest margin of victory the franchise has ever posted, and its biggest over Las Vegas. It was also a fourth straight win for a Liberty group that has now taken seven of eight.

A 40-Point Game Has a Lot of Chapters

New York made its intentions clear immediately, scoring the first five points and jumping out 15-4 inside of five minutes. It was 24-15 after one and 50-39 at the half, which on paper looks almost respectable. Las Vegas even scored 24 in the second quarter, a number that would soon feel like a fond memory.

Then the third quarter happened. The Liberty scored the first seven points, five of them from Rebecca Allen, while the Aces went more than five minutes without a basket of any kind until NaLyssa Smith finally got a layup to fall. Las Vegas managed 12 in the period. Johannes closed it with a 30-footer with a second on the clock, making it 74-51 and pulling the building out of its seats.

Most teams would coast from there. New York did rest most of its starters, and the bench somehow made it worse for Las Vegas. The Liberty poured in 37 in the fourth, a season high for any quarter according to the team, on 15-of-21 shooting. Han Xu scored seven points in about 90 seconds at one stage, and a closing 9-0 run carried New York from 102 to 111 in the final minute and change.

The Reserve With Unlimited Range

Johannes played 22 minutes and shot 9 of 14. Seven of those makes came from deep on 12 attempts, which matched her career high and the franchise record for 3s off the bench. She scored 20 of her 27 after halftime, a career high for any half per the Liberty, and made four 3s in the fourth alone, including a 25-foot step-back and a 32-footer in the final 2:07 that felt mostly like showing off. The team notes she is just the seventh reserve in WNBA history to hit seven 3s in a game.

And here is the detail a screenwriter would reject as too cute: this was the 12th time she has come off the bench to score 15 or more, and the only player in Liberty history with more such games is Becky Hammon, who happened to be standing on the other sideline as the Aces' coach.

Nobody else needed to do much, which was lucky for Sabrina Ionescu, who went 2 of 10 for five points and still finished plus-16. Jonquel Jones had 15 points and eight rebounds in 19 minutes and hit her 200th 3 in a Liberty uniform. Breanna Stewart scored 14 and collected a full afternoon's worth of record-book trivia: per the team, she became the first player in franchise history to reach 200 blocks, joined Sylvia Fowles as the only players with at least 200 for more than one franchise, and made her 1,000th field goal as a member of the Liberty. Allen added 13 points and eight boards, Han scored 14, Rebekah Gardner had 11, and Marine Fauthoux dished a career-high nine assists while taking two shots.

Wilson, Gray and Young account for 57 points per game, per the AP. Their replacements in the lineup, Brianna Turner, Dana Evans and Jewell Loyd, scored eight between them. Ta'Niya Latson did her best off the bench with 20 points on 6-of-9 shooting, and Mai Yamamoto added 16 with four 3s and six assists. The Aces' reserves scored 52 of the team's 71.

The Start of the Third Ended Any Suspense

If a 40-point game has a turning point, it was the first five minutes after halftime. Eleven points is not an impossible deficit, even with half a roster. But Las Vegas had played in Minnesota on Saturday and tipped off here less than 24 hours later, and when the legs went, they went all at once. New York's 7-0 opening and that long Aces drought turned a tired team's uphill climb into a formality, and the fourth quarter was just decoration.

Stats That Matter

• Bench points: New York 58, which the team says is its third-highest total in franchise history and its most since 2016.
• Paint points: Liberty 52, Aces 26.
• Rebounds: Liberty 45, Aces 24, including a 13-5 edge on the offensive glass.
• 3-pointers: New York hit 14 of 32. Johannes had half of them.
• The scoring streak: The Liberty have scored at least 92 in eight straight games, the longest such streak in WNBA history, per the team.

Four Straight for New York, a Long Flight for Las Vegas

New York is 20-13 overall and 11-5 at home. The win answered a 104-99 loss in Las Vegas on July 30, and it got Chris DeMarco to 20 wins in 33 games, which the team says is faster than any other head coach in franchise history. The Liberty head to Indiana on Tuesday.

The Aces fall to 22-11 overall and 13-6 on the road. They finished a five-game road trip at 2-3 with consecutive losses, the first of them to a Minnesota team holding the league's best record. They return home to face Washington on Tuesday, and one assumes the full cast will be back on the marquee.

The Oldest Plot on Broadway

The Liberty spent part of the day celebrating the franchise's 30th anniversary, bringing back dozens of former players, Teresa Weatherspoon and Kym Hampton among them, after the first quarter. Hammon got her own moment, drawing a warm hand from the crowd and hugs from old teammates who walked over to the Aces' bench.

Then everybody went back to watching the oldest plot on Broadway: the stars stay home, the understudy goes on, and the reviews are better than anyone expected. The only twist on Sunday was that the understudy worked for the other side.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details as reported by the Associated Press and the New York Liberty.