No team in WNBA history has ever come back from an 0-2 hole in a five-game playoff series, and the Liberty certainly understood that assignment Tuesday night.

They also realize that they still have a long way to go.

The league’s No. 1 seed stood tall and served on his home court to take a 2-0 lead in this semifinal series in his quest to avenge last year’s WNBA Finals loss to arch-foe Aces with a nail-biting match from 88-84. 2 victory over his rivals at Barclays Center.

“It’s great to be 2-0 up, but we haven’t won anything yet. I think everyone knows that,” said Sabrina Ionescu, with the series shift to Las Vegas looming for Game 3 on Friday. “We did what we had to do: protect the home court and win two at home.

“But it’s not like we pat ourselves on the back and celebrate, talking about how happy we are. This is not what we came for.”

Leading scorer Breanna Stewart followed up her 34-point effort in the opener with just 15 points, but added eight assists and two game-clinching free throws in the final seconds.

Ionescu overcame a slow shooting start to finish with a team-best 24 points, and Jonquel Jones contributed 14 points and eight rebounds.

Former starter Courtney Vandersloot added 12 points off the bench for the Liberty, who scored a total of 22 points off 13 turnovers from the Aces.

“It was extremely intense. It’s a team chasing a championship. Both of us,” Jones said. “It’s playoff basketball. It’s physical and tiring.”

Aces star and league MVP A’ja Wilson scored just six points in the first half before finishing with a team-high 24. Jackie Young scored 17 and Chelsea Gray had 14 for Las Vegas, but Kelsey Plum was held to six points on 2-for-9 shooting.

“It was Aces vs. Aces tonight,” said Vegas coach Becky Hammon, the former Liberty star from 1999-2006. “We were beating ourselves.”

Liberty coach Sandy Brondello admitted beforehand that she wasn’t aware of the statistical history regarding WNBA teams overcoming an 0-2 series hole, but she emphasized that she was only concerned about Tuesday night’s win.

“It would be fun for the two of us to go to Vegas,” she said.

Of course, the opposite happened a year ago, when the Liberty dropped the first two games of the finals in Las Vegas before losing the championship series in four games.

In the first quarter of Game 2, Plum committed two quick errors and Wilson scored just two points, but the Aces still led 27-22 through one as Alysha Clark scored eight.

The Libs turned up the defensive intensity and forced two early turnovers in the second – of the Aces’ 11 in the half – leading to layups from Jones and Kayla Thornton off assists from Stewart for a one-point play.

Tiffany Hayes scored six straight points for the Aces before the eighth of the ninth lead changes in the half. The latter came on Ionescu’s first two three-pointers, sandwiched around a three-point play by Jones, with the Liberty leading 46-40 at halftime.

Stewart registered two assists and a layup early in the third to extend the cushion to 10.

The Aces cut it to four on two 3-pointers from Young, but Vandersloot added a key blocked shot on Young and sank a trey to the left as the Liberty had a seven-point lead entering the final quarter.

However, the Aces drew within three points on five straight points from Wilson to open the fourth, eventually tying the game on a Clark corner-3 with 1:31 to go.

After Ionescu dropped a 15-foot jumper to regain the lead, Hayes missed one of two free throws with 16.2 seconds left.

Ionescu also made 1-of-2 for an 84-82 lead, and she dropped two more with 8.2 ticks on the clock after Gray ruled a Brondello challenge as a turnover at the other end.

“It got a bit stressful there, but I trust that we can stay balanced in those moments and take appropriate actions,” Brondello said afterwards. “Sabrina was huge there. … Now we go out and we get locked up.”