No team in WNBA history has ever come back from an 0-2 hole in a five-game playoff series, and Liberty certainly understood its task Tuesday night.
They also understand that they have a long way to go.
The league's No. 1 seed held serve on its home court and took a 2-0 lead in the semifinal series, looking to avenge last year's WNBA Finals loss to the arch-rival Aces in a nail-biting 88-84 game. Two wins over rivals at Barclays Center.
“It's great to win 2-0, but we haven't won anything yet. I think everyone knows that,” said Sabrina Ionescu, who is set to move the series to Las Vegas for Friday's Game 3. he said. “We did what we had to do, which is defend our home court and win two games at home.
“But we're not patting ourselves on the back and celebrating and talking about how happy we are. This is not what we came here to do.”
Leading scorer Brianna Stewart, who scored just 15 of her 34 points in the opener, added a season-high eight assists and two game-clinching free throws in the final seconds.
Ionescu overcame a slump in shooting to finish with a team-high 24 points, and Jonquel Jones contributed 14 points and eight rebounds.
Former starter Courtney Vandersloot added 12 points off the bench for the Liberty team, and the Aces totaled 22 points with 13 turnovers.
“It was very intense. This is a team that wants to win, and we both do,” Jones said. “It's playoff basketball. It's physical and it's tiring.”
Liberty won the second game. Michelle Falci/New York Post
A's star and league MVP A'ja Wilson finished with a team-high 24 points, scoring just six points in the first half. For Las Vegas, Jackie Young scored 17 points and Chelsea Gray added 14 points, but Kelsey Plumb was held to six points with two goals. 9 shots.
“It was ace versus ace tonight,” said Vegas coach Becky Hammon, who was a Liberty star from 1999 to 2006. “We were losing to ourselves.”
Liberty coach Sandy Brondello admitted beforehand that he didn't know the statistical history of WNBA teams overcoming 0-2 series holes, but stressed he was only concerned about winning Tuesday night.
“It would be nice to be able to go to Las Vegas in two places,” she said.
Of course, a year ago the opposite happened. At that time, Liberty dropped the first two games of the finals in Las Vegas and then lost the championship series in four games.
In the first quarter of Game 2, Plum committed two quick fouls and Wilson only scored two points, but Alisha Clark scored eight points and the Aces still led by one point, 27-22.
The Ribs stepped up their defensive intensity, forcing two of the Aces' 11 turnovers early in the second half, and got a one-point lead off assists from Stewart and layups from Jones and Kayla Thornton.
Tiffany Hayes scored six straight points as the ace on the eighth of nine lead changes in the first half. The final point came on the strength of Ionescu's first two 3-pointers, sandwiched by a 3-point play by Jones, and Liberty led 46-40 at intermission.
Stewart had two assists and a layup early in the third set, extending his cushion to 10.
The Aces narrowed the lead to four points on two 3-pointers from Young, but Vandersloot added a key blocked shot from Young and sank a trey from the left side, giving Liberty a seven-point advantage going into the final quarter. I entered.
However, the Aces pulled within three points with Wilson's five straight points and took the lead in the fourth, before finally tying the game on Clark's corner 3 with 1:31 remaining.
After Ionescu hit a 15-foot jumper to take the lead, Hayes missed one of two free throws with 16.2 seconds left.
Ionescu also made 1 of 2 for an 84-82 lead, then sank two more with 8.2 seconds left after a challenge from Brondello was ruled a turnover by Gray.
“It was a little stressful there, but I believe we can stay calm in the moment and make the right play,” Brondello said after the game. “Sabrina was huge in that section. …Now we move on down the road and we get trapped.”
