Liberty top Aces 88-84 for 2-0 lead in WNBA semifinals, put the champs on the brink

NEW YORK (AP) — Sabrina Ionescu scored 24 points and the New York Liberty beat the Las Vegas Aces 88-84 on Tuesday night to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five semifinal series.

Game 3 is Friday night in Las Vegas, with the two-time defending champion Aces trying to avoid being knocked out by the team they beat in the WNBA Finals last year.

No team has rallied from a 2-0 deficit to win a best-of-five playoff series in WNBA postseason history. Only Phoenix was able to force a Game 5 in 2018 against Seattle.

The game was tied at 81 before Ionescu hit a jumper with 1:15 left to give New York a two-point lead. Both teams had chances before Ionescu fouled Tiffany Hayes with 16.9 seconds remaining off of a jump ball.

Hayes hit the first of two free throws to make it a one-point game. New York secured the rebound and Ionescu got fouled with 11.6 seconds left and also only hit one free throw to make it 84-82.

Las Vegas had a chance to tie it, but the ball went out of bounds on the sideline with 10.5 to play and after New York challenged the call that it was the Aces’ ball, the officials overturned the decision and gave the Liberty the ball.

Ionescu then hit two free throws to make it a two-possession game. A’ja Wilson answered with a jumper with 5.6 left for the final margin before Breanna Stewart hit two free throws less than a second later to seal the win.

Stewart finished with 15 points, eight assists and seven rebounds for the Liberty.

Wilson scored 24 points and Jackie Young added 17 for the Aces.

The Liberty led 69-62 heading into the final period before the Aces rallied behind Wilson to tie the game at 81 on Alysha Clark‘s three-pointer with 1:31 left.

After a rough start in Game 1, the Aces jumped out to a 27-22 lead after the first quarter behind a strong opening 10 minutes from Chelsea Gray. She had just four points in the Game 1 loss and coach Becky Hammon said she would have a discussion with her star guard. Gray responded by coming out aggressively with 10 points in the first 10 minutes.

The teams went back and forth and Las Vegas led 40-37 with 2:33 left in the half before Ionescu hit two three-pointers sandwiched around a three-point play by Kayla Thornton to give New York the 46-40 advantage at the break, drawing loud cheers from the sellout crowd that included Carmelo Anthony, Alicia Keys, Robin Roberts, Colin Kaepernick and Gayle King.

Liberty great Teresa Weatherspoon was also in the crowd. She was fired by the Chicago Sky as their coach last week. She received a very loud ovation from the fans when she was shown on the video screen in the fourth quarter.

It’s not just fans turning up to watch the series in person. Game 1 of the series drew an average viewership of 929,000 on TV. It was the most-viewed WNBA semifinal in 22 years.

The Aces lost center Kiah Stokes with 9.5 seconds left in the third quarter. She was chasing a loose ball out of bounds and went down hard to the ground after committing a loose ball foul. She was down for a few minutes before being helped back to the locker room. The team said she suffered a potential concussion.