Game 2 loss to Liberty would put Aces in uncharted territory

Aces coach Becky Hammon said it felt like her team was trying to “dig out of a hole” in Sunday’s 87-77 Game 1 semifinals loss to the New York Liberty at Barclays Center.

Coming from behind is a position the Aces need to avoid in more ways than one, as falling to a 2-0 deficit in the best-of-five series could be catastrophic for the team’s hopes to win three straight WNBA championships.

If the Aces don’t win Game 2 on Wednesday in New York, history says they have a zero percent chance of coming back to advance.

The WNBA has used a best-of-five format for the semifinals since 2016 and for the finals since 2005. No team has come back from trailing 2-0.

“It’s do or die. We have to win game two,” Hammon said after Sunday’s loss. “I don’t think there’s any other way around it.”

The Phoenix Mercury were the only team to force a Game 5 from being down 2-0. They notched a 17-point comeback to beat the Seattle Storm 86-84 in Game 4 of the 2018 semifinals, but the Storm won Game 5 94-84 and then the championship.

Liberty star Breanna Stewart and Aces reserve forward Alysha Clark were on the 2018 Seattle team. On Sunday, Stewart was the driving factor in the Liberty’s hot start, scoring 20 of her 34 points in the first half.

Familiar position

It helps that the Aces are familiar with trailing 1-0 in a series.

In 2022, the Storm won Game 1 of their semifinals series in Las Vegas, pushing the Aces to win three straight games. The year yielded the organization’s first title.

But Hammon and guard Kelsey Plum, the Aces’ leading scorer Sunday, can vividly recall the uphill battle against the Storm.

The Liberty have said they were “scarred” by losing to the Aces in the 2023 finals, and the Aces’ 2022 semifinals series against the Storm seems to have left a mark of its own.

“We were in this position with Seattle my first year, except we were the home team and then we had to come back and beat them,” Hammon said. “So we’ve had our backs against the wall before. I think (Stewart) gave us 40 in one of those games.”

Hammon was thinking of Game 4, which saw the Aces survive 42 points from Stewart and notch a 97-92 win to close the series.

“Sue Bird had 10 assists, zero turnovers,” Plum said. “I was guarding her.”

It’s likely Plum was referring to the Game 1 loss in which the now-retired star point guard had 12 assists and a steal without a turnover. Bird and American soccer legend Megan Rapinoe sat courtside as the Aces lost another Game 1 on Sunday.

“We don’t remember it at all,” Hammon said sarcastically of their last 1-0 postseason deficit. “None of us remember that trauma.”

“I do,” Plum said quietly.

Contact Callie Fin at clawsonfreeman@reviewjournal.com. Follow @CallieJLaw on X.