Chelsea Gray and the Aces are looking for back-to-back titles. (Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports) (USA Today Sports/Portal)
In a season marked by the anticipation of a clash between two WNBA superteams, the Las Vegas Aces barely held up their end of the bargain.
The defending champions completed a three-game sweep of the Dallas Wings with a 64-61 victory in the WNBA semifinals on Friday, reaching the finals for the third time in the last four years. The Aces previously defeated the Chicago Sky 2-0 in the first round.
The other team in the finals will be the winner of the semifinal series between the New York Liberty and Connecticut Sun, which the Liberty currently lead 2-1.
After being blown out by the Aces in Game 1 and rallying late but still losing in Game 2, the Wings finally managed to put together a complete game until the final five minutes. Dallas seemed to be the more active team early in the game and took a 36-31 lead at halftime.
The Aces responded with a 7-0 run to open the second half and take the lead, but the Wings’ size advantage continued to trouble Vegas. They finished the game with a 41-39 rebounding advantage and 30-24 game winning points while overall making A’Ja Wilson’s life hell. The two-time MVP finished the game with 13 points on 4 of 10 shooting, 13 rebounds, two assists and a career-high nine turnovers.
The Wings slowly built an eight-point lead with five minutes left, and then, well, Wings fans probably won’t want to talk about what happened next.
It’s not like the Aces have reached the level they seem capable of on their own. The Wings just started missing, and that was all Vegas needed to reach the Finals. Dallas did not score in the final 4:58 of the game.
The Aces took the lead for the first time in the fourth quarter on a single free throw from Alysha Clark with 1:45 left, but gave the Wings several chances to win it in the final 30 seconds. Arike Ogunbowale missed a 16-footer with 14 seconds left, but the Wings regained control by tying Wilson on the rebound. That opened the door for Natasha Howard to shoot for a 3-pointer…and throw it in the air.
Jackie Young made two free throws to increase the lead to three, and another missed 3-pointer by Ogunbowale – who finished the game 8 of 24 – ended the game.
WNBA is just one game away from an Aces-Liberty Finals
The Aces’ usual quartet of Wilson, Young, Kelsey Plum and Chelsea Gray all finished in double figures, with Gray leading the team with 15 points plus six rebounds and four assists. They will now receive a full 10 days of rest before the WNBA Finals begin on October 8th.
When the Liberty face the Aces at the end of the season, it will be the culmination of nearly a year of anticipation since the Liberty assembled a worthy challenger to the dominant Aces in Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones and league MVP Courtney Vandersloot. The Aces, for their part, added Candace Parker, but she’s been out since July.
The Aces have gotten this far because they did what worked last year. They finished the regular season with the most wins in WNBA history, but lost 2-3 to the Liberty (2-2 in the regular season with a significant loss in the Commissioner’s Cup final).
The Liberty have already shown that they are capable of beating the Aces, but beating them in the final would of course be another challenge. New York will get its first chance to confirm its spot in Game 4 against the Sun on Sunday.