A season-saving win can flip the momentum of a playoff series, but the Las Vegas Aces know they still don’t have a winning hand.
The two-time defending champions staved off elimination Friday but remain grounded entering Sunday’s game against the visiting New York Liberty in their best-of-five WNBA semifinal.
“The minute you get comfortable, that’s when you’re exposed. I think you just go one game at a time,” Aces guard Chelsea Gray said. “We’re still down 2-1. We haven’t done anything.”
Las Vegas lost the series’ first two games in New York before returning home to defeat the Liberty 95-81 in Game 3 on Friday. It marked the Aces’ first win over New York in six tries this season and extended Las Vegas’ playoff home win streak to 12, setting a WNBA record.
Gray had 10 points and seven assists Friday but is still shooting just 11-of-29 (37.9 percent) from the floor over the series’ first three games. Unanimous league MVP A’ja Wilson has paced the fourth-seeded Aces with an average of 21.3 points and 9.0 rebounds against the top-seeded Liberty.
New York returns to the court after suffering its first loss during these playoffs. Liberty forward Breanna Stewart suggested her team needs to be more prepared for the urgency that a desperate Las Vegas squad will display Sunday.
“They’re gonna throw everything at you. They’re gonna be aggressive, they’re gonna use their fans, they’re gonna use the momentum behind it,” Stewart said. “I think that we didn’t come ready for all that (on Friday). We didn’t come and embrace the hard things.”
Stewart is averaging 22.7 points and 6.0 rebounds in the series, while guard Sabrina Ionescu has tallied 16.3 points, 6.0 boards and 5.0 assists. Ionescu was limited to four points Friday after posting 45 across the first two games.
No WNBA team has ever erased a 2-0 deficit to win a playoff series, but Stewart knows how difficult it is to finish off a team fighting for its season. New York trailed the Aces 2-0 in last year’s best-of-five finals before rallying to win Game 3 at home but lost in four games.
“This is when teams are most dangerous, when their backs are against the wall,” Stewart said. … It’s not gonna get any easier from here.”
–Field Level Media