When you’re playing blackjack, it’s always a smart move to split aces. When you’re holding onto home-court advantage in the WNBA playoffs, it’s crucial not to let the Las Vegas Aces get a split.
The Golden State Valkyries withstood a furious 4th-quarter comeback from the Aces, who overcame a 17-point deficit and took their first lead of the game after an 18-6 run. But Gabby Williams hit a jumper with 1:25 to play, Veronica Burton hit a clutch three-pointer to retake the lead, and the Valkyries held
on during an endgame that turned into a free-throw contest in the final seconds.
Down the stretch, both teams traded intentional fouls. From the 9.2-second mark, each team sank a pair of free throws with only 2.8 seconds coming off the clock. The Valkyries fouled again with 5.9 seconds to go, at which point Aces coach Becky Hammon got sick of watching foul shots (and ran out of timeouts). Jackie Young made her first free throw to cut the lead to two, then intentionally missed her second, which was rebounded by Chelsea Gray. But Kiah Stokes continued an excellent defensive game by blocking her shot and sealing the 83-81 win.
It was the Valkyries first block of the game and it happened with 1.2 seconds to go. The Aces ran an incredible play with Young flying in to tap the rebound to Gray, but Stokes, playing with five fouls, delivered the game-saving block on a play where she was reaching behind her to deny the shot.
Tiffany Hayes led the way with 21 points in 17 minutes off the bench, including a perfect 8-for-8 performance from the foul line. The Valkyries were 25-for-27 overall on free throws, barely edging the Aces, who were 23-for-25 before Young’s intentional miss at the end. Gabby Williams scored 20 points, her fourth time with 20 or more points in five playoff games, and sank three three-pointers.
For three quarters, it looked like the Valkyries would keep the Aces from rebounding from their Game 1 loss by preventing them from rebounding at all. The Aces shot 43 percent on field goals and three-point shots in the first half, but scored only 31 points thanks to turning the ball over and grabbing only nine rebounds.
The combination of Stokes and Aminata Gueye only delivered two points in 42 combined minutes and racked up five fouls each. Still, their presence in the lane kept the Aces off the boards for the first half, even if they could only deny A’ja Wilson for so long. She broke out of a first-half slump by scoring 13 points in the third quarter, including three separate three-point plays. Once again, Wilson had a 24-point game that still felt like a win for the Valks’ defense.
Wilson’s presence was a big reason that newly-minted Sixth Person of the Year Janelle Salaun had such a quiet game, scoring just two points, albeit in exciting fashion.
You wouldn’t have expected Gueye to play twice as many minutes as the Sixth Person of the Year in her fourth WNBA game, but that’s how concerned coach Natalie Nakase has been about Wilson. Salaun’s lack of playing time didn’t keep the highest-scoring bench in WNBA history from outscoring their Las Vegas counterparts, 34-14, including a 7-2 all-bench run to start the second quarter. In Game 1, the bench advantage was 27-7 for the Valkyries.
After Game 1, Hammon said the Aces “played like ass” but still only lost by 10 points. In Game 2, they arguably played like ass for one half and lost by two, so maybe that’s progress? They got 14 points from Young and 10 from Stephanie Talbot, making it less of a Wilson-and-Gray show, but still not enough to overcome the #StrengthInNumbers approach of the Valkyries.
No WNBA team has ever come back from 0-2 in a playoff series. If any team is going to do it, you’d think one with A’ja Wilson and Chelsea Gray could do it, especially with the Valkyries worrying tendency to scoring slumps this postseason. However, Nakase seems ready to use any player and any strategy to thwart the Aces — and their defense and rebounding don’t look like they’re going to slump any time soon.
