NEW YORK — 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. And only the Phoenix Mercury was able to force a Game 5, in 2018 against the Seattle Storm.
Tuesday’s contest 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 was 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 seconds 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 seconds left, before Breanna Stewart hit two free throws less than a second later to seal the win.
Stewart finished with 15 points, 8 assists and 7 rebounds for the Liberty.
Wilson scored 24 points for the Aces, and Jackie Young added 17.
The Liberty led 69-62 heading into the final period before the Aces rallied behind Wilson to tie the score at 81 on Alysha Clark’s 3-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 thanks to a strong opening 10 minutes from Chelsea Gray. She had just four points in the Game 1 loss, and Las Vegas coach Becky Hammon had said she would have a discussion with her star guard. Gray responded by coming out aggressively with 10 points in the first quarter.
The teams went back and forth early, and Las Vegas led 40-37 with 2:33 left in the half before Ionescu hit two 3-pointers sandwiched around a three-point play by Liberty forward 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 attendance. She was fired by the Chicago Sky as their coach last week. Weatherspoon 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 this series in person. Game 1 drew an average viewership of 929,000 on TV. It was the most-viewed WNBA semifinal game 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 court 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.