Las Vegas – As the final buzzer was rang on match 2 of the WNBA finalsThe AS of Las Vegas celebrated by going and speaking to Usher, the singer who attended the field. They threw t-shirts in the stands. They looked like the kind of team that had just taken a 2-0 lead in the final.
At the other end of the field, the Phoenix Mercury left in the air as frustrated as throughout the match they lost, 91-78 on Sunday. A’ja Wilson des AS collected 28 points and 14 rebounds, and Jackie Young added 32 points and eight rebounds. After scoring 27 points to take the opening framework, Phoenix was held at only 10 points in the second quarter. It was the kind of game where the Mercury could not find its rhythm, and they had trouble adapting to the offensive flow of Wilson and Young.
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A sequence at the end of the first quarter summed up how much Phoenix was frustrated by the defense of the aces. Kahleah Copper missed a layup, obtained his own rebound, then missed again. Alyssa Thomas obtained the rebound and tried to shoot the ball, but was blocked by Chelsea Gray.
While Copper scored 23 points and Sutou Sabally had 22, few other players found ways to contribute. The Mercury only drew 17.9% compared to the line of 3 points, and the AS exceeded Phoenix 43-34. The Mercury bench, which normally makes a huge difference for the team, was held at eight points, the most marked late in the match, while the result was no longer in question.
No team wants to be down 0-2 in a series for the best of seven, but the Mercury has the benefit of a change of decor while the series moves to Phoenix for matches 3 and 4. The Mercury was 15-7 at Phx Arena in the regular season, and won pivot matches there in the first round of the playoffs and semi-final.
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“We have already broken down. We have been overlooked,” said Mercury’s head coach Nate Tibbetts after the match. “You know, of course, people will start talking about the quality of Las Vegas, and they should. We have always rebounded, and we are therefore delighted to go home to play in our original arena.”
The Phoenix fans base, known as X Factor, prides itself on the effect that it can have on opposing teams, and Mercury will need it because they aim to end their most lost sequence of this qualifying series.
“I think that factor X is part of the success we had this season,” said Copper. “It’s always good to be at home.”
In addition to watching adhesive tape to make adjustments for match 3, Phoenix will have to rely on his push story through adversity. After losing the match 1 of the semi-finals at the Lynx in Minnesota, the Mercury set up a historic 20-point return in match 2 and never abandoned from there.
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“(We will remember) our travel period in the playoffs, being in Minnesota, down 17 years and over, or anything in the third quarter, to be able to retaliate and know that this is part of our identity,” said Copper. “But I think we were really able to lock ourselves on the defensive, because this is what we aroused our hats. But I think that in this game in general, it was a question of fighting, and we somehow lost that.”
Copper also said that mercury should share and move the ball more. They collected 17 assists on Sunday, when they have an average of 20.9 per game in the regular season. The recruit Monique Akoa Makani led the team with seven assists. They will also have to count on Sabally. She left the match in the third quarter with an ankle injury, but said she was doing well after the match.
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Las Vegas won the match 1 Friday evening behind A performance by Dana Evans monsterWho got out of the bench to score 21. Sunday was Wilson and Young. The aces are not lacking in offensive weapons, which makes more difficult for Phoenix to stop bleeding once someone has started.
They don’t have much time to breastfeed their injuries after this defeat – Match 3 is Wednesday evening in Phoenix (8 p.m. he, ESPN).
