The Aces Beat The Storm To Win Their First Round Series And Set Up A Showdown With New York

The Las Vegas Aces are once again headed to the semifinals of the WNBA playoffs. The Aces played host to the Seattle Storm at Michelob ULTRA Arena on Tuesday night in Game 2 of their first round matchup, and while it wasn’t always pretty, the two-time defending champions were able to get the job done with an 83-76 win to wrap up a 2-0 series win.

Las Vegas came out on fire to start the game, as the team raced out to a 17-4 lead and looked primed to run Seattle out of the building behind the trio of A’ja Wilson, Kelsey Plum, and Chelsea Gray. While they were the only three Aces player to score in the first quarter, Wilson and Plum both had 12, while Gray put up six as the team shot 12-for-18 from the field.

If not for the face that Ezi Magbegor scored 10 points in the opening frame, it would have been easy to see a scenario where the Aces opened up a gigantic, insurmountable lead. But instead, Las Vegas was able to take a 30-20 lead into the second quarter.

Seattle’s defense was able to lock in during the second, as the Aces were unable to really get anyone going — the only players to score were Wilson, Plum, Gray, and Tiffany Hayes. Still, while the Storm were able to cut into the lead and get it down to as little as one point, a 6-0 run to close out the period meant that the Aces went into the locker room for halftime with a 45-38 lead. Wilson’s 18 points led all scorers, while Magbegor had 12 to lead her side.

Neither team was able to find much of a rhythm on the offensive end of the floor in the third quarter. While Seattle was narrowly able to cut into the Vegas lead, they weren’t able to get over the hump against the defending champions, while Las Vegas was unable to extend its lead beyond six.

But early on in the fourth, the Storm finally took their first lead of the game. An 8-0 run got capped off by a made layup by Mercedes Russell, which put Seattle ahead, 65-64.

The Aces were immediately able to show their championship mettle. Right as the Storm took their first lead of the night, Las Vegas responded with a 7-0 run of their own to wrest control of the game away from their opponents … only for Seattle to dust themselves off and immediately get the lead back down to one. And with Las Vegas needing someone to come up big, the MVP answered the bell, with Wilson cleaning up a miss by Gray and kicking it out to Jackie Young, who buried a three.

The Aces were able to get their lead up to as many as eight points, and were able to do just enough to keep Seattle at arm’s length down the stretch as they wrapped up the win. The 1-2 punch of Plum and Wilson carried Las Vegas, with the former leading all scorers with 29 points and the latter putting up a 24-point, 13-rebound double-double. Gray and Young both nearly had double-doubles, too, with Gray putting up 12 points and nine rebounds, while Young had nine points and nine boards. For Seattle, Gabby Williams scored 20 points, Magbegor had 14, and both Nneka Ogwumike and Skylar Diggins-Smith had double-doubles — the former had 16 points and 10 rebounds, while the latter had 13 with 10 assists.

With the win, Las Vegas set up a rematch of the 2023 WNBA Finals with the New York Liberty, which secured a 2-0 series win over the Atlanta Dream earlier in the evening. While New York is the 1-seed this time around, the Aces were able to take care of business in the Finals last year in a 3-1 series victory.