Veronica Burton nailed a tiebreaking 3-pointer with 41.5 seconds remaining and the Golden State Valkyries pushed the defending WNBA champions to the brink of elimination with an 83-81 victory over the Las Vegas Aces in Game 2 of the playoff semifinals on Wednesday in San Francisco.
Kiah Stokes blocked a Chelsea Gray layup attempt with 1.3 seconds left to preserve Golden State’s win.
“I like that we had a close one today,” Valkyries guard Gabby Williams said. “I think we needed that to get out of our comfort zone.
“We knew they wanted to steal one here and we wanted to protect Ballhalla (a nickname for Chase Center). I feel I have superpowers here.”
The best-of-five series moves to Las Vegas for Game 3 on Friday night, with the second-seeded Valkyries, up 2-0, having a chance to end the season of the third-seeded Aces.
“I can’t convince them that this isn’t a must-win,” Aces coach Becky Hammon said, “because if we lose, we go home and we stay home. We know we’re capable of stringing three wins together. That’ll be the goal now.”
After dominating the first 29 minutes of the game, the Valkyries saw a 66-50 lead with 1:08 remaining in the third quarter turn into a 76-74 deficit when A’ja Wilson’s layup with 1:36 left gave the Aces their first lead of the game.
Williams countered quickly with a 14-footer that produced a 76-all tie. After Gray was harassed into a missed 3-pointer, Burton got open for a 28-footer that put Golden State ahead for good.
“Disappointing. Three or four plays where we wish we had a do-over,” Hammon said. “It doesn’t work that way. That Burton 3-pointer was huge.”
Las Vegas had two subsequent opportunities to tie, the first coming when Gray misfired on a 3-point try with 37 seconds to go.
After two free throws apiece from Golden State’s Kayla Thornton with 7.9 seconds left and Burton with seven seconds to go, the Valkyries were up three and fouled Jackie Young with 5.9 seconds remaining. She made the first free throw, then intentionally missed the second attempt, with a loose ball landing in the hands of Gray near the hoop.
Gray’s point-blank attempt in a crowd was sent away by Stokes, however, allowing the clock to run out.
Tiffany Hayes had 21 points off the bench, Williams scored 20 points and Thornton added 16 for the Valkyries, who won despite getting outshot 43.9% to 41.4% overall and 42.1% to 34.5% from 3-point range. Stokes was Golden State’s leading rebounder with seven.
Held to six points in the first half as the Aces fell behind 42-31, Wilson led all scorers with 24 points and also found time for seven rebounds, one fewer than teammate Kalani Brown’s game-leading total.
Gray chipped in with 19 points to complement a game-high six assists for Las Vegas, which was outrebounded for the second game in a row, but this time only by 30-25. Young added 14 points, and Stephanie Talbot contributed 10.
–Field Level Media
