LAS VEGAS – The Las Vegas Aces haven’t shied away from acknowledging the difficulty of scoring three goals all season long. After a rocky regular season and a tough semifinal game against the top-seeded New York Liberty, the No. 4 Aces faced a bigger fight than ever as they tried to return to the mountaintop.

But Las Vegas finally ran out of gas Sunday and its bid for history failed as it lost Game 4 to the Liberty 76-62 and dropped the best-of-five series 3-1.

New York, making its own path to history in hopes of winning its first franchise title, will be in the WNBA Finals for the sixth time and second straight year. The opponent will be determined Tuesday when Minnesota and Connecticut face off in the other semifinal in Game 5 in Minneapolis.

The Liberty, who fell short of the championship against Las Vegas last year, defeated the Aces in six of their seven meetings this year, including all three in the regular season.

“They were the best team all year. Let’s be honest,” Aces coach Becky Hammon said after the game. “Your group deserves it. They deserve it all year long.”

But two-time MVP Breanna Stewart remained determined: “We haven’t done anything yet,” said Stewart, who had 19 points, 14 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 blocks. “It was a tough series, an emotional series, for you.” There are many different reasons… (but there is) just the feeling of not being satisfied.

Only once in the WNBA has there been a three-peat, and that was when the Houston Comets dominated the sport’s early years from 1997 to 2000. In this millennium, only the New York Yankees (1998-2000) and the Los Angeles Lakers (2000-2002) made it in their respective leagues. No team in the NHL or NFL has achieved this feat during this time.

“It’s hard to just do it,” three-time Las Vegas MVP A’ja Wilson said of the search for three goals. “Every team looks different. Your team looks different. Nothing is the same. Everyone wants to beat you. You’re everyone’s Super Bowl. That’s hard to understand.”

Despite trailing for most of Sunday, the Aces remained within striking distance and trailed by just two points entering the fourth quarter. A 23-11 frame from New York that began with a 16-2 burst made the difference.

The game in some ways reflected some of the Aces’ struggles throughout the season. Wilson led the competition with 19 points on 53.8% shooting. But the guards, who couldn’t repeat their efficiency from Las Vegas’ previous two championship runs this summer, didn’t help Wilson enough. Kelsey Plum, Tiffany Hayes, Chelsea Gray and Jackie Young combined to shoot 12 for 42 (28.6%), and the team as a whole hit just 7 of its 30 attempts from beyond the 3-point arc (23.3%). After Hammon became frustrated that her team had allowed a “layup clinic” in the first two games of the series, New York saw plenty of those relaxed looks down the stretch on Sunday afternoon.

Because of this disparity, Hammon compared her group to the Minnesota Lynx – a squad with good talent that is an excellent team. She felt her Aces had excellent talent but were just a good team this season.

“You don’t have it every year. That’s not how it works. You can’t flip a switch,” Hammon said. “Actually, that’s the beauty of sport. The work, the commitment, the commitment, the ambition, the will and the will will always show in the end.”

“And New York has shown really great will and determination all year long. We talked a lot last year. I’m sure they heard it and this year they were allowed to beat us.”

The Aces’ season was the most difficult of Hammons’ three-year tenure. They started 6-6 and by mid-June had recorded the same number of losses as they had in all of 2023. Their top offensive player, point guard Chelsea Gray, missed the first 13 games of the season because of a foot injury suffered in last year’s Finals has contracted.

There were also numerous out-of-court controversies: The league has been investigating the franchise since May to determine whether it granted improper benefits and circumvented the salary cap. In August, former Aces forward Dearica Hamby filed a federal lawsuit against the team and league, alleging she was discriminated against because of pregnancy and was subjected to intimidation and retaliation from the franchise.

Las Vegas “could have given up a lot sooner,” Gray said Sunday, managing to play its best basketball of the year by the end of the regular season and winning nine of its final 10 games to reach the playoffs.

But after a glimmer of hope with a blowout win in Game 3 on Friday that kept their season alive after losing both games in Brooklyn, Hammon and her team sat and processed their first season since 2021 that didn’t end in celebration.

“We’ve never done exit meetings (before). We had exit parties,” Hammon joked, before holding back tears as he noted the pain of Wilson’s historic season ending without a championship.

“We hurt each other,” Gray said. “All the work we’ve put in, the ups and downs of this season, injuries, not playing, back and forth. You want it to all come together with a trophy at the end, right? I think the pain is there because we wanted to have the cup in the end.

“It sucks, it burns,” Wilson said. “But I’m very proud of the group we had.”

Hammon called New York a team “built to take us out,” which has been even more true since last offseason. At the start of the second year of their “super team” era after acquiring Stewart, Jonquel Jones and Courtney Vandersloot, the Liberty retooled their bench and, most importantly, added the 1.90 meter tall German rookie guard Leonie Fiebich.

New York’s length and improved defense held the Aces to 32.8% shooting on Sunday, continuing their streak of no consecutive losses since late May. Fiebich struggled with foul trouble, but still finished the game with a game-best +28 plus/minus. The team’s improved chemistry and understanding of how to win hard allowed them to put the game on ice and avoid extending the series to a winner-take-all Game 5.

Sabrina Ionescu (22 points) emphasized that “no hurdle” was overcome in sending the Aces home, while acknowledging that the Liberty’s struggles against Las Vegas “made us a better team.”

“It’s a testament to their cohesion, their experience and how hard it is for them to go out there every night and do their best,” Ionescu said of the Aces. “They laid the foundation and continue to motivate everyone in the league to just get better and win championships.”

But the scars the Liberty suffered last year are still there. Even if a return to the last playoff series is in sight.

“We were in the finals last year,” Stewart said, “and we didn’t do anything.”

But with two guaranteed home games, a longer break than their ultimate finals opponent and the momentum of sending the two-time defending champions home in tow, the Liberty are three wins away from achieving a different result.