The Seattle Storm cooled off the Las Vegas Aces and now have the opportunity to post a mammoth upset when the teams meet in the decisive Game 3 on Thursday night in Las Vegas.
Seattle was beaten by 25 points in Game 1 and was trailing by 14 in the third quarter in Tuesday’s Game 2 before rallying for an 86-83 win at home. The seventh-seeded Storm finished the game on a dazzling 16-4 run.
The loss was the first for Las Vegas since a horrific 111-58 setback against the visiting Minnesota Lynx on Aug. 2. The second-seeded Aces won their final 16 regular-season games before hammering Seattle 102-77 in the opening contest of the best-of-three first-round series.
“This team was the hottest team in the league and we were able to beat them,” Storm star Skylar Diggins said. “We have another tough one in Vegas.”
Diggins had 26 points and seven assists and Nneka Ogwumike added 24 points and 10 rebounds to pace Seattle. Dominique Malonga converted the go-ahead 3-point play with 31 seconds left to give the Storm their first lead since they were up 37-36 in the second quarter.
“We are not unfamiliar with tight games, and we’re not unfamiliar with playing from behind,” Ogwumike said.
Diggins and Ogwumike each made four 3-pointers and Seattle was 10 of 20 as a team.
“We guarded poorly at the 3-point line,” Aces coach Becky Hammon said. “Our hands were down, we weren’t disruptive, we weren’t even guarding. We were eight feet off of them. It was trash garbage (defense) at the 3-point line.”
Las Vegas was sailing when A’ja Wilson scored four straight points early in the fourth period to give the Aces a 75-63 advantage with 7:06 left.
Seattle dominated the rest of the contest by scoring 23 of the final 31 points.
“It’s a shame,” Hammon said. “I feel like we let one go.”
After a Diggins basket with 4.2 seconds left to make it a 3-point margin, Las Vegas had a chance to force overtime, but Jewell Loyd’s 3-point attempt bounced off the rim.
“We didn’t execute our stuff at a high level on both ends of the floor, and that led to us losing,” Loyd said.
Jackie Young scored 25 points and Wilson added 21 points, 13 rebounds and five assists for the Aces.
The winner of Thursday’s game will face either the Atlanta Dream or Indiana Fever in the best-of-five semifinals.
–Field Level Media
