Valkyries Hold Off Aces’ Comeback, Take 2-0 Semifinal Lead on Brink of WNBA Finals

SAN FRANCISCO — The Golden State Valkyries are one win away from the WNBA Finals. The second-year franchise survived a ferocious fourth-quarter rally from the defending champion Las Vegas Aces on Wednesday night at Chase Center, winning 83-81 to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five semifinal series — and push the Aces to the brink of elimination.

It looked like a rout, then it looked like a collapse, then it looked like the defining win of a young franchise’s existence. Golden State built a 17-point lead in the third quarter and had the defending champions on the ropes. Las Vegas clawed all the way back, grabbing its first lead of the night with about 90 seconds left. But the comeback that had the Chase Center crowd holding its breath ran out of road: the Valkyries steadied down the stretch, leaning on clutch play from Gabby Williams and Veronica Burton, and escaped with the two-point win, according to USA Today’s live coverage of the game.

The finishTwo games in one night

The quarter-by-quarter scoring tells the story. Golden State controlled the first half, taking the opening quarter 19-11 and the second 23-20 to carry a double-digit cushion into the break. The third quarter was dead even at 24-24, and by the middle of it the Valkyries’ lead had swelled to 17 points.

Then the champions woke up. Las Vegas won the fourth quarter 26-17, erasing the entire deficit and taking its first lead of the night with about a minute and a half to play. It was the kind of surge that has defined the Aces’ dynasty years. But this time there was no finishing kick waiting at the end of it: the Valkyries made the plays that mattered in the final possessions — Williams and Burton the late-game heroes, per USA Today — and the Aces never found a go-ahead answer.

The numbersWilson does everything, again

A’ja Wilson was enormous, again. The Aces’ center posted 24 points and seven rebounds, nearly single-handedly dragging Las Vegas back into a game that had gotten away from it. Chelsea Gray added 19 points and six assists, and Jackie Young chipped in 14 points and eight assists, per USA Today.

The rebounding told a very different story than Sunday’s opener — and that is progress the Aces can actually take to Las Vegas. After being demolished on the glass 52-25 in Game 1’s 71-60 loss, including a 17-2 deficit on the offensive boards, the Aces narrowed the margin to 30-25 in Game 2, per USA Today. It still was not enough, but the 48 hours of film work Becky Hammon demanded at least showed up on the glass.

“That was one of our more atrocious games of the season,” Hammon said of Game 1 in her postgame remarks Sunday, according to USA Today. After watching her team get outrebounded by 27, she left no doubt where the series would be won and lost: “All we talked about for the last 48 hours was rebounding and blocking them out,” she said, “and we did not do it. Period,” in comments carried by the league’s game summary via Field Level Media. Game 2 was better. It just was not a win.

The injury crisisNext woman up, for real this time

Las Vegas played Game 2 without Jewell Loyd, and the absence was glaring. The veteran guard was officially ruled out Wednesday with the left leg injury she suffered in the third quarter of Game 1, according to a Reuters report distributed by Field Level Media. Loyd was scoreless in 17 minutes on Sunday before exiting and missing the rest of the contest.

The context makes it worse. Loyd is the 2023 WNBA scoring champion, the player who averaged 24.7 points per game for the Seattle Storm in her title-winning season. The 12th-year pro, who turned 33 on Monday, is now a role player for the Aces — a six-time All-Star averaging a career-low 8.0 points per game, against a career average of 15.4, per the Reuters report. She has not been the star she was in Seattle. On Wednesday, Las Vegas could not even have the role player.

The rest of the injury list reads like a training-room census. Forward Stephanie Talbot (left leg) was questionable for Game 2 and guard Dana Evans (right knee) was upgraded to probable; both missed Game 1, per Reuters. NaLyssa Smith, who started 38 games for the Aces, is out for the remainder of the season with a left leg injury. Evans, limited to 14 games this season, last played on Sept. 22 and had missed five straight games before her upgrade, per The Spun. Golden State’s side of the report is mercifully short: center Iliana Rupert is out for the season.

Hammon has stopped pretending the math is fine. “We don’t have a lot of time to sulk about it,” she said, according to Reuters. “Nobody feels bad for us. It’s the next woman up.” Before the game she was even blunter with reporters, per USA Today: “We’re a little bit depleted right now. We just have to be next woman up.” The Aces were depleted, and they were one defensive stop in the final minute from stealing a series-tying win anyway.

The historyNo one has ever done this

The arithmetic is brutal for Las Vegas: no team in WNBA history has ever come back from an 0-2 deficit in a playoff series, according to USA Today. The defending champions now have to be the first — and it starts with a must-win Game 3 on Friday night.

For Golden State, the stakes are the mirror image, and they are delicious. Two years into existence, the Valkyries are one victory from the franchise’s first WNBA Finals berth. They took Sunday’s opener 71-60 in San Francisco, holding the Aces to their lowest playoff scoring total since their first championship run in 2022. In that game, Gabby Williams went for 25 points, 11 rebounds and five assists, Kiah Stokes vacuumed up 14 rebounds — seven on the offensive glass — with three blocks despite going scoreless, and Kayla Thornton added 11 rebounds, per Yardbarker’s recap. Wednesday was closer. The result was the same.

Around the bracket, the other semifinal is following the same script. The Atlanta Dream beat the New York Liberty 101-98 in Game 2 on Wednesday evening in Atlanta to take a 2-0 lead of their own, per Sportradar’s playoff schedule — meaning both higher seeds are one win from a Finals date.

What’s nextFriday night in Las Vegas

Game 3 is Friday at Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas. The Aces’ season, their title defense, and their shot at becoming the first team in league history to climb out of an 0-2 hole all ride on one game. Win, and the series comes back to the desert for a Game 4 with momentum and a crowd. Lose, and the second-year Valkyries — a franchise that did not exist three summers ago — are in the WNBA Finals.

For a full look at how this series got here, revisit our Game 2 preview and the Aces’ growing injury crisis, plus today’s WNBA daily roundup.