The Guru’s WNBA Report: New York Goes Up 2-0 in the Semis Putting Two-Time Reigning Champion Vegas on the Brink; Minnesota Evens It 1-1 With Connecticut

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

Most of Tuesday night, Breanna Stewart played a productive but second-fiddle performance, statistically, to New York Liberty teammate Sabrina Ionescu.

But with seconds left in Game 2 of one of the WNBA semifinals the former UConn great, who was also on the USA Gold Medalists with Ionescu in Paris last summer, sank two foul shots giving the top-seeded Liberty an 88-84 victory and 2-0 lead in the best-of-five series over the Las Vegas Aces leaving zero room for error the rest of the way by the two-time reigning champs.

All the Aces must do now to return to the finals as the series heads to Sin City is to block New York from making it a 3-0 sweep in the next game, then pull a home sweep if they survive Game 3 (Fri., 9:30 p.m., ESPN2), and then in what would be a terrific upset, beat the Liberty back in Brooklyn on the Barclays Center court they finished off a 3-1 triumph in last season’s championship.

The New Yorkers now own a 5-0 record – three in the regular season followed by the 2-0 launch at home on their revenge tour on Vegas - after going 2-0 in Brooklyn over the eighth-seeded Atlanta Dream in the first round.

Meanwhile, in the other semifinal Game 2 later in the evening, the second-seeded Minnesota Lynx re-gained their footing from the opening upset home loss to the third-seeded Connecticut Sun and prevailed 77-70 to even things 1-1, a game series matching two of the top defensive squads in the league.

But the Sun will now be home for the next two beginning Friday (7:30 p.m., ESPN2) and moving on to Sunday, time and viewing platforms unknown until it’s determined if the other series is still alive.

A Sun-Liberty finals would guarantee a first-ever title for either New York, one of the remaining individuals of the eight charter members from 1997, or Connecticut, which came along a few years later as an expansion franchise under the NBA Orlando ownership and then bought by the Mohegan Indian Tribe in 2003 when they moved the team to New England.

At the time, the Mohegans were the first group outside of the other owners, all in the NBA.

Connecticut got to this round at the Mohegan Sun Arena at the casino-entertainment complex in Uncasville putting away the Indiana Fever at home 2-0 to close the last chapter on Iowa grad Caitlin Clark’s fabulous rookie season.

Nevertheless, the TV numbers still did quite well in going up against the full slate of NFL games in Sunday’s two openers.

Earlier Tuesday, the 28-year-old WNBA trotted out the numbers released by ESPN showing the game in New York that aired on ABC was the most watched semifinal in 22 seasons at 929,000 viewers and peaking at 1.2 million in a game that got close from Vegas near the end.

It was ABC’s third most viewed WNBA playoff game on record and up 60 percent on last season’s semifinals Game 4 between New York and Connecticut.

The Lynx-Sun game at night on ESPN with 654,000 viewers was the most viewed on cable since 2000 and up 33 percent on last season’s three-game semifinal average.

Combined, the two Sunday averaged 800,000 viewers, up 176 percent on last season’s ESPN/ESPN2 airings.

WNBA Countdown is up 30 percent on last season’s full playoff average across ABC/ESPN.

New York Short-Circuits Vegas Rally at the Finish

Perhaps the Liberty needed one more year after building the super squad last season to add to 2020 overall No. 1 draft pick Sabrina Ionescu out of Oregon and counter the talent-laden Aces, who got fast tracked squiring a host of eventual 2024 Olympians paced by now regular season multi-winning MVP A’ja Wilson out of Dawn Staley’s South Carolina collegians.

Ionescu scored 24 in a game in which Las Vegas got a better start than in the opener but still came up empty in the closing minutes when both teams squandered some opportunities ultimately grabbed by the Liberty.

“Being up 2-0 is great, but we haven't won anything,” she said. “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 how happy we are. We didn't come to win two games at home and be satisfied, we're a hungry group.”

In WNBA playoff history, no team has rallied from being down 2-0 to win a series, though the Phoenix Mercury forced a Game 5 on Seattle in 2018.

Phoenix is where New York coach Sandy Brondello, also the Australian Olympic coach, won a previous WNBA Crown.

“We protected home court,” she said. “We want to go to Vegas. We play well on the road and they play great at home.”

Alysha Clark from Vegas remained defiant in the face of impending demise.

“It's a series for a reason, there's no championship won off of two wins,” she said. “I've had a lot of playoff experience where i've been up 2-0, down 2-0. The series is not over period.”

Ionescu hit a jumper to snap an 81-81 tie with 1:15 remaining in regulation.

Both teams then missed some opportunities before former UConn star Tiffany Hayes off a jump ball went to the line off a foul by Ionescu with 16.9 left to play.

Hayes, however, who came out of retirement this season, missed the second attempt that would have knotted it.

Then Ionescu, after a Liberty rebound from the missed attempt, went to the line with 11.6 on the clock.

She, too, missed a second shot, leaving New York up 84-82.

The ball went out of bounds with Vegas going for a tie with 10.5 to go and New York won a challenge to regain possession.

Ionescu, scoring seven of the Liberty’s final nine, hit two free throws for a four-point lead.

“In the big moments, she steps up, doesn’t shy away from the big moments,’’ said New York’s Jonquel Jones, the George Washington grad who came from the Sun last season and whose guardian is Temple coach Diane Richardson.

Wilson scored with 5.6 left but then Breanna Jones, last season’s MVP, ended it with two from the line.

“They made more plays than us,” Vegas coach Becky Hammon said with some laughter of the narrow ending. “Did I say it was a must win? Was I lying? Trying to bring the drama.”

Stewart had 15 points, eight assists and seven rebounds while on Vegas, Wilson scored 24 and sister Olympian Jackie Young, a former Notre Dame standout, had 17.

The Aces led 27-22 after the first period but New York rallied on a pair of treys from Ionescu on both sides of a triple from Kayla Thornton to go up 46-40 at the half to the delight of the crowd that included celebrities such as Carmelo Anthony, Alicia Keys, Robin Roberts, Colin Kapernick, and Gayle King, cited by The Associated Press in its report.

Recently ousted Chicago Sky coach Theresa Weatherspoon, a star on the early New York teams with Vegas’ Hammon, was also on hand.

Minnesota Draws Even

In Minneapolis at the Target Center, Courtney Williams, a former Sun star out of South Florida, had 17 points and Stanford grad Alanna Smith scored 15, enough to compensate an off night from Napheesa Collier as Minnesota put the series back up for grabs heading to Connecticut.

The Sun defensed her into a 3-14 effort from the field, limiting the Olympian and former UConn great to nine points, well off the 40 she averaged in the 2-0 start on ousting Phoenix in the first round.

Collier still grabbed 12 rebounds and five rebounds against a Sun group who kept it close most of the night.

“We’ve got to match their energy,” Williams said. “First game, they was chirping and chatting so you have to give it back to ‘em. Playoff basketball, man.”

Maryland grad Alyssa Thomas out of Harrisburg, another Olympian, had 18 points, 10 rebounds, and seven assists, but the Sun suffered on threes, shooting 5-20 from deep.

DeWanna Bonner scored 17 and Marina Mabrey, who came to the Sun in a mid-season swap with Chicago, had 15 points, though collected off 4-14 from the field.

Cheryl Reeve, the La Salle grad and South Jersey native who is going into the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame on Nov. 7 and also followed up Dawn Staley guiding USA in Paris to its eighth straight gold medal, won four WNBA crowns in the last decade with the Lynx.

“I believe to be successful you do have to experience adversity. You have to get through the adversity, go through it, go through the lumps, bumps, all that to get through the promised land,” Reeves said Tuesday night. “That’s the only way. If it was easy, everybody would be doing it.”

Observed Sun coach Stephanie White, who guided Indiana to a title and several finals last decade, “They were the aggressor tonight. They were aggressive on the defensive end. They were physical. They wouldn't let us get into our offense. They responded to every run.”