Aces clinch top seed in postseason, Liberty finish second
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Digital Subscription
One year of digital access for only $205*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/09/2023 (1097 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
NEW YORK (AP) — A’ja Wilson and the Las Vegas Aces will have homecourt advantage throughout the WNBA playoffs — a place they only lost once during the regular season.
The defending champions wrapped up the top seed in the postseason before they even stepped on the court Sunday by virtue of New York’s last-second loss to Washington. It wouldn’t have mattered if the Liberty won that game because the Aces beat Phoenix to finish the regular season 34-6.
“If you had said 34-6 to me back in May, I would have jumped at that in a second,” Las Vegas coach Becky Hammon said. “And here we are. The amount of energy and effort they put into being professionals, their approach to the game — they were so good.”
Las Vegas will open up the best-of-three first round series Wednesday night against eighth-seeded Chicago, which enters the postseason for a fifth straight year.
The other half of Las Vegas’ bracket features fourth-seeded Dallas against No. 5 Atlanta. The Dream ended up in a three-way tie with Minnesota and Washington in the standings, but earned the fifth-seed through tiebreakers. The Wings-Dream matchup begins Friday night.
The Lynx will play at Connecticut on Wednesday night to open up that series.
The second-seeded Liberty play Washington on Friday night. The two teams played a thriller to conclude the regular season on Sunday that ended when Brittney Sykes put in a lob at the buzzer to lift the Mystics to a 90-88 win.
“We wanted to send a message that you are going to have to see us all series long,” Mystics guard Natasha Cloud said. “Regardless of the injuries, regardless of whatever — you’ve got to go through a really good team still and a team that’s hungry, a team full of dogs. … So we just wanted to make ourselves known and let it be known that this is going to be a really good series.”
The playoff format for the second consecutive year will have the better-seeded team hosting the first two games with a decisive third game on the lower seeds court if necessary. The games are more spread out with four days between the first two contests of each matchup. Last season only had three days between games.
Seattle, Phoenix, Indiana and Los Angeles missed the playoffs.
___ AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball