A return trip to the WNBA Finals is within reach for the New York Liberty when they hit the road Friday to face the Las Vegas Aces, who are trying to stave off the end to their two-year championship reign.
The Liberty took a 2-0 lead in their best-of-five semifinal series against the Aces with an 88-84 home victory in Game 2 on Tuesday. Sabrina Ionescu scored 24 points with nine rebounds as New York broke free from a tie game with just over a minute remaining.
Ionescu’s pull-up jumper with 1:15 remaining gave the Liberty an 83-81 lead and they never trailed from there. Breanna Stewart, who finished with 15 points, eight assists and seven rebounds, sealed the victory with two free throws with 5 seconds remaining.
Plenty has been made of the Liberty’s quest to avenge their defeat to the Aces in last year’s WNBA Finals, but New York is well aware there is more left to accomplish.
“They came out swinging (in Game 2), playing really aggressive and … we stuck together, chipped away quarter by quarter and made big plays when we needed to,” Ionescu said. “Now we have a great opportunity to go take that first one at their home court. That’s what our goal is.”
Ionescu has scored at least 20 points with five assists and at least 50-percent shooting from the floor in three consecutive playoff games, the second to accomplish the feat after Diana Taurasi in 2009, according to ESPN.
After she averaged 20.4 points and 8.5 rebounds in 38 regular-season games to finish third in MVP voting, Stewart has averaged 20.5 points with 7.3 rebounds in four playoff games, all victories.
The Aces’ A’Ja Wilson earned her third MVP award this season with 26.9 points and 11.9 rebounds and has scored 22.5 points with 8.5 rebounds as Las Vegas has gone 2-2 in four playoff games.
Wilson scored 24 points on 11-of-18 shooting with seven rebounds in Tuesday’s defeat.
Chelsea Gray got the Aces off to a fast start in Game 2 with 10 first-quarter points to give her team a 27-22 lead. But Las Vegas scored just 13 points in the second quarter on 5-of-15 shooting as New York took a 46-40 lead into the break.
The Liberty led by as many as eight with eight minutes remaining in the game before the Aces charged back to tie it at 81 on a 3-pointer from Alysha Clark with 1:31 remaining. Las Vegas was outscored 7-3 the rest of the way while missing three shots from the floor, one free throw and committing one turnover in the final minute.
No WNBA team has ever come back from a 2-0 deficit in a playoff series, and while the Aces are back home, they were just 13-7 in their own building during the regular season after going 19-1 in 2023.
“We have neither lost nor won a championship. Nothing has been won,” Aces head coach Becky Hammon said, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “Let there be no doubt, we’re in for a war.”
–Field Level Media