In a season dominated by expectations of a clash between two WNBA superteams, the Las Vegas Aces just held up their end of the bargain.
The defending champions completed a three-game sweep of the Dallas Wings in the WNBA semifinals with a 64-61 win on Friday, reaching the Finals for the third time in the last four years. The Aces previously defeated the Chicago Sky 2-0 in the first round.
The other team in the Finals will be the winner of the semifinal series between the New York Liberty and Connecticut Sun, which the Liberty currently leads 2-1.
After getting blown out by the Aces in Game 1 and rallying late but still losing in Game 2, the Wings finally put together a complete game, at until the final five minutes. Dallas opened the game looking like the more active team and took a 36-31 lead into halftime.
The Aces responded with a 7-0 run to open the second half and take the lead, but the Wings’ size advantage kept pestering Vegas. They finished the game with a 41-39 rebounding advantage and 30-24 win points in the paint, while making life generally miserable for A’Ja Wilson. The two-time MVP finished the game with 13 points on 4-of-10 shooting, 13 rebounds, two assists and a career-high nine turnovers.
The Wings slowly carved out an eight-point lead with five minutes left and then, well, Wings fans probably aren’t going to want to talk about what happened next.
It’s not that the Aces reached the gear they alone seem capable of. The Wings simply started missing, and that was all Vegas needed to reach the Finals. Dallas didn’t score in the final 4:58 in the game.
The Aces took their first lead of the fourth quarter with 1:45 left on a single made free throw by Alysha Clark, but gave the Wings multiple chances to win it in the final 30 seconds. Arike Ogunbowale missed a 16-footer with 14 seconds left but the Wings regained posession by tying up Wilson after the rebound. That opened the door for Natasha Howard to take a shot at a 3-pointer … and air-ball it.
Jackie Young made two free throws to push the lead to three, and another miss by Ogunbowale — who finished the game 8-of-24 — on a 3-pointer ended the game.
