Aces ‘Believe’ They Can Pull Off Historic Semifinals Comeback vs. Valkyries
The Las Vegas Aces dominated the Golden State Valkyries in the regular season. The playoffs have been a very different story. Las Vegas is without NaLyssa Smith for the rest of the season and also missed Stephanie Talbot in Game 1 against the Valkyries. Jewell Loyd also left that game with an injury and hasn’t returned to the lineup yet. Dana Evans made her debut in Game 2 fresh off a lengthy injury absence.
The Valkyries, meanwhile, are healthy and the deepest team left in the playoffs. They are wearing the Aces down with constant defensive pressure, relentless effort on the boards, and good rotations.
After an 83-81 loss, the Aces are now down 0-2. Since A’ja Wilson rose to superstardom, the Aces have been down 0-2 in a playoff series three times. In 2019, they lost the first two games of the semifinals to the Washington Mystics. The same happened in the 2020 finals against the Seattle Storm. Four years later, they lost two games to open their semifinal series against the New York Liberty. They lost all three series.
So far, no team in the WNBA has come back from a 0-2 deficit in a best-of-five series. The Aces and Liberty look to snap that streak, as both are down 0-2 to younger, less experienced, and less proven teams. Becky Hammon, for one, refused to share any doubt that her team cannot rise to the challenge.
“We know we’re capable of stringing three in a row,” Hammon said in the postgame media availability, per a video on the WNBA’s YouTube channel. “We believe we’re capable of that. So, that will be the mindset. No reverse psychology, no nothing. Just go out and get it done.”
The Aces have won three of the last four WNBA championships, and A’ja Wilson is still the best player in the world. If a team has a chance to battle back from a 0-2 deficit, it’s probably the Aces. But the Valkyries won’t make it easy. They really figured out how to bother the Aces defensively, and even if the Aces win two games at home, the Valkyries will get to play Game 5 at Balhalla with the best home-court advantage in the W.
The Aces played a bit better in Game 2
The Aces lost Game 1 by 11 points, as the Valkyries’ crushed them on the boards and Wilson struggled to score efficiently.
Game 2 was just a two-point loss after the Aces battled back from a 17-point deficit. Hammon was, of course, not pleased, but acknowledged that it was a better effort than the first game.
“I think they had six o[ffensive] boards,” Hammon said. “Still outrebounded us. So, not good enough, but better.”
The box score actually lists ten offensive rebounds for the Valkyries while the Aces had six. They outrebounded the Aces 30-25 overall. Wilson and Kalani Brown did the heavy lifting on the boards for the Aces with 15 combined rebounds. Talbot was also solid with four rebounds, but getting zero rebounds from Jackie Young in 37 minutes isn’t great, and Brianna Turner and Cheyenne Parker-Tyus also have to be better when they are on the court.
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Elaine Blum covers women’s basketball for On SI from Europe. She has been writing about women's hoops since 2023 and holds a Bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism and a master’s degree in American Studies with a focus on women’s and gender studies. She started playing basketball when she was 10 years old and won several league and state championships at the youth and senior level.