Can Aces make history against Liberty? – NBC10 Philly

Can Aces make history against Liberty? – NBC10 Philly

The Las Vegas Aces’ path to a triple goal is dangerously approaching its end.

The New York Liberty took a 2-0 lead over the two-time defending champions in this year’s semifinals and came within a whisker of winning the WNBA Finals.

With their backs against the wall, the Aces return to Sin City on Friday to continue their season at home.

Coming from a 2-0 deficit, the Aces must make history to reach another WNBA Finals, and there will only be one blip at the end of their season.

Here’s a look back at series comebacks in WNBA playoff history as Las Vegas looks to overcome its semifinal deficit:

Has a WNBA team ever come back from a 2-0 playoff series deficit?

No team has actually accomplished what the Aces want to accomplish against the Liberty.

The best-of-five playoff series was introduced in 2005 for the WNBA Finals and expanded to the league’s semifinals in 2016. During that time, every team that has ever fallen into a 2-0 gap in this format has lost the series.

The 2018 Phoenix Mercury came closest to an improbable turnaround. They lost the first two games of their semifinal series in Seattle against the Storm before rebounding with consecutive wins in Phoenix to force a Game 5. The Storm returned to the Pacific Northwest and took care of the win-or-win Game 5, winning 94-84 to avoid ending up on the wrong side of history.

Has a WNBA team ever come back from a 2-1 playoff series deficit?

While no team has ever fully come back from a 2-0 loss in the series, the Aces can look back on several examples of teams that have come back from a 2-1 loss – including themselves.

There have been seven instances in which a team overcame a 2-1 series deficit to emerge victorious. Four of them came in the WNBA finals and three in the semifinals.

  • 2006 WNBA Finals: Shock over the Monarchs
  • 2007 WNBA Finals: Mercury over Shock
  • 2009 WNBA Finals: Mercury over Fever
  • 2017 WNBA Finals: Lynx over Sparks
  • 2018 WNBA Semifinals: Mystics over Dream
  • 2020 WNBA Semifinals: Aces over Sun
  • 2022 WNBA Semifinals: Sun sets across sky

How many WNBA teams have overcome a 1-0 deficit and won a best-of-three series?

The most common series comebacks in the WNBA playoffs have occurred in best-of-three matchups. In total, 34 teams lost Game 1 in a best-of-three series before winning the next two games.

A closer look at the WNBA’s early playoff format helps explain why such comebacks were so common. From 1998 to 2009, the team with home advantage played its first game away before hosting its opponent in Games 2 and 3. 23 teams have recovered from 1-0 deficits in three games in that span, winning the last two contests at home.

From 2010 to 2015, the WNBA ensured that teams with home-field advantage were in their own arenas for Games 1 and 3. Nevertheless, nine teams were able to overcome 1-0 deficits in this format.

The league removed the best-of-three series from its playoff layout from 2016 to 2021, switching to single-elimination in the early rounds before switching to best-of-five matches. They were already added for the first round in 2022.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article was published in September 2022.