The Las Vegas Aces and Connecticut Sun are heading home with very different feelings after the first two games of their playoff semifinals series.
The Aces are fighting to save their season against New York, while the Sun are looking to finish off the Minnesota Lynx.
The two-time defending champions, the Aces, are down 2-0 in the best-of-five series against New York. Meanwhile, the Sun split their first two games in Minnesota.
Despite the tough situation, the Aces are not panicking, even though they need to make a historic comeback to reach the Finals for the third year in a row.
“At the end of the day, we have neither lost nor won a championship. Nothing has been won tonight,” said Las Vegas coach Becky Hammon. “Do we have an uphill battle? Absolutely we do. All New York did was do what New York should do — defend their home court. It’s a series, we intend on pushing it five games. We got to take it quarter by quarter. Be solid on the defensive end.”
No team has ever come back from an 0-2 deficit in a best-of-5 WNBA playoff series.
“I love being in the history books, might as well try and start there,” said Aces guard Chelsea Gray. “That’s going to be our mentality. We must win for our series to continue.”
On the other hand, New York says they haven’t achieved anything yet. The Liberty managed to defend their home court and need just one more win in the next three games to eliminate the Aces. The series will move to Las Vegas for Game 3 on Friday. If the Aces win that game, Game 4 will be on Sunday.
“Being up 2-0 is great, but we haven’t won anything,” said Sabrina Ionescu, who scored 24 points in the 88-84 win. “Everyone knows that. Did what we were supposed to do, protect home court. Win two at home. We’re not patting ourselves on the back, talking about how happy we are. We didn’t come to win two games at home and be satisfied, we’re a hungry group.”
