How the Liberty put two-time defending champion Aces on brink of elimination

The two-time defending champion Las Vegas Aces are a loss away from elimination after dropping Game 2 88-84 to the New York Liberty in the WNBA semifinals Tuesday at Barclays Center. No WNBA team has come back from an 0-2 deficit to win a best-of-five series, and no defending champion has been in this position.

This series is a rematch of the 2023 Finals, which the Aces won 3-1. Since the championship-sealing 70-69 Game 4 victory in Brooklyn, Las Vegas has lost five games in a row against New York. The skid ties a franchise record for consecutive losses against the same opponent.

The top-seeded Liberty have never won a championship, but they have been to the Finals five times. WNBA teams are 18-0 in playoff history when leading 2-0 in a best-of-five series.

On the other side of the bracket, the Minnesota Lynx evened their series with the Connecticut Sun with a 77-70 victory at Target Center.

The playoffs continue Friday (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN) as the semifinal series shift to Las Vegas and Connecticut.

ESPN looks at how the Liberty moved one win away from sweeping the Aces, and how the Lynx held court against the Sun on Tuesday.





Liberty lead best-of-five series 2-0

It's worth remembering the sample of WNBA series that started 2-0 is small and reflects many that weren't this close. New York won these first two games by a combined 14 points, and only four of the previous 18 featured a combined margin that small -- including the only time a team rallied to force a Game 5, with the Phoenix Mercury knotting the series against the Seattle Storm during the 2018 semifinals.

When the NBA staged best-of-five series, we saw six 2-0 comebacks, per ESPN Research. By that 5.6% win rate (6-102), we're overdue for a similar WNBA comeback. We'll see if Las Vegas can be that team. -- Kevin Pelton

When New York's superteam came together ahead of the 2023 season, the arrival of three high-profile newbies -- Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones and Courtney Vandersloot -- in Brooklyn dominated headlines.

Ionescu, however, has emerged as a dominant offensive force in the 2024 postseason. She led the Liberty with 24 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists Tuesday, making her the only player in Liberty history with multiple postseason 20-point, 5-rebound, 5-assist games. What made Ionescu's performance stand out in Game 2 (aside from the super-stuffed stat line) was her impact in the fourth quarter, when she scored or assisted on 16 of New York's 19 points. The Liberty looked to her to lead, and she delivered. -- Katie Barnes

When asked what she appreciated about her team's play in the first half of Game 2, Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said, "I liked the second quarter." She should have. That's when New York won the game. The Aces were the better team for the other 30 minutes, but in the second quarter, New York exhibited why it was the best team in the regular season. The Liberty outscored Las Vegas 24-13. Stewart scored or assisted on 13 of those points, with the strategy of making the two-time MVP a facilitator paying off. (She finished with eight assists.) Five New York players scored, and Ionescu came alive with two massive 3-pointers in the final 1:45 of the half.

The Liberty's defense also created eight Las Vegas turnovers and gave up only five field goals in the second quarter. -- Charlie Creme





Best-of-five series is tied 1-1

Last year, the Sun went into the postseason without a core piece of their identity after Brionna Jones suffered an Achilles injury in June. Having her interior presence back this season, along with bringing in Marina Mabrey, gave the Sun confidence they could finally win a championship.

And yet Jones hasn't been a presence in this series. In Game 1, she contributed six points and two rebounds in 18 minutes; in Game 2, she played 13 minutes and sat the entire fourth quarter.

The Sun are at their best when Jones is impactful on both ends, and we saw what that looks like in September when she scored at least 17 points in seven consecutive games. Minnesota's interior defense of Collier, Alanna Smith and Myisha Hines-Allen can be incredibly difficult to face, but if the Sun can find ways for Jones to be a bigger factor down low on offense, it will open up looks for the Sun elsewhere on the court. -- Alexa Philippou

If Stephanie White was told before Game 2 her team would hold Napheesa Collier, the league's MVP runner-up who was averaging 33.0 points through her first three playoff games, to 3-of-14 shooting, Connecticut's coach probably would have expected her team to win. White ran multiple defenders at Collier, whose nine points equaled a season low. But Connecticut's offensive output didn't match the defensive effort, and the Lynx were able to overcome their star's off night.

Perhaps winning one game on the road to start a best-of-five series accomplishes enough. Yet it still feels as if the Sun -- given the job they did to slow down Collier -- let a chance to take control of the series slip away. -- Creme

On a night when Collier struggled offensively, as Charlie noted, she got the help she needed. Three Minnesota starters were in double figures, and everyone who played for the Lynx scored at least four points in at least 12 minutes. Courtney Williams, who spent most of her career in a Sun uniform, was particularly impactful. She led the Lynx with a team-high 17 points and also had 5 rebounds, 4 assists and a steal.

Minnesota won four championships in seven years, most recently in 2017, with rosters full of future Hall of Famers. This version of the Lynx is constructed differently but is two wins away from returning to the Finals. -- Barnes