The two-time defending champion Las Vegas Aces are one loss away from elimination after dropping Game 2 88-84 to the New York Liberty in the WNBA semifinals Tuesday at Barclays Center. No WNBA team has come back from an 0-2 deficit to win a best-of-five series, and no defending champion has been in this position.

This series is a rematch of the 2023 final, which the Aces won 3-1. Since the 70-69 Game 4 championship victory in Brooklyn, Las Vegas has lost five straight games against New York. The skid ties a franchise record for consecutive losses to the same opponent.

Top-seeded Liberty have never won a championship, but they have been to the finals five times. WNBA teams are 18-0 in playoff history when leading 2-0 in a best-of-five series.

On the other end of the bracket, the Minnesota Lynx evened their series with the Connecticut Sun with a 77-70 victory at Target Center.

The playoffs continue Friday (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN) as the semifinal series shifts to Las Vegas and Connecticut.

ESPN takes a look at how the Liberty came one win away from beating the Aces, and how the Lynx took on the Sun on Tuesday.

Liberty led the best-of-five series 2-0

Don’t write off the Aces

It’s worth remembering that the sample of WNBA series that started 2-0 is small and represents many that weren’t that close. New York won these first two games by a combined 14 points, and only four of the previous 18 had a combined margin that small — including the only time a team rallied to force a Game 5, where the Phoenix Mercury tied the series against the Seattle Storm in the 2018 semifinals.

When the NBA hosted best-of-five series, we saw six 2-0 comebacks, according to ESPN Research. With that 5.6% winning percentage (6-102), we are too late for a similar WNBA comeback. We’ll see if Las Vegas can be that team. — Kevin Pelton

Have the Liberty officially become Sabrina Ionescu’s team?

When New York’s superteam came together ahead of the 2023 season, the arrival of three high-profile newcomers – Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones and Courtney Vandersloot – in Brooklyn dominated the headlines.

However, Ionescu has emerged as a dominant offensive force in the 2024 postseason. She led the Liberty with 24 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists on Tuesday, making her the only player in Liberty history with multiple postseason appearances of 20 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists. What made Ionescu’s performance in Game 2 stand out (aside from the super-filled stat line) was her impact in the fourth quarter, when she scored or assisted on 16 of New York’s 19 points. The Freedom looked to her to lead, and she delivered. — Katie Barnes

Game 2 was more competitive than the series opener. What was the difference?

When asked what she appreciated about her team’s play in the first half of Game 2, Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said, “I liked the second quarter.” She should have done that. Then New York won the game. The Aces were the better team for the remaining 30 minutes, but in the second quarter New York showed why it was the best team of the regular season. The Liberty defeated Las Vegas 24-13. Stewart scored or assisted on 13 of those points, with the strategy of turning the two-time MVP into a facilitator paying off. (She finished with eight assists.) Five New York players scored, and Ionescu came alive with two huge 3-pointers in the final 1:45 of the half.

The Liberty defense also committed eight Las Vegas turnovers and gave up just five field goals in the second quarter. — Charlie Cream

The best-of-five series is tied at 1-1

Can the Sun get Brionna Jones going?

Last year, the Sun entered the postseason without a core piece of their identity after Brionna Jones suffered an Achilles injury in June. Her presence in the interior this season, along with bringing in Marina Mabrey, gave the Sun confidence that they could finally win a championship.

And yet Jones is not present in this series. In Game 1, she contributed six points and two rebounds in 18 minutes; in Game 2, she played 13 minutes and sat the entire fourth quarter.

The Sun are at their best when Jones is making an impact on both ends, and we saw what that looks like in September when she scored at least 17 points in seven straight games. Minnesota’s interior defense of Collier, Alanna Smith and Myisha Hines-Allen could be incredibly tough to face, but if the Sun can find ways to keep the Lynx paying low on offense, it will improve the Sun’s chances elsewhere enlarge the field. — Alexa Filippou

Has Connecticut missed a golden opportunity?

If Stephanie White was told before Game 2 that her team would hold Napheesa Collier, the league’s second MVP, who had averaged 33.0 points in her first three playoff games, to 3-of-14 shooting, the Connecticut coach probably expected her team to do that. win. White had several defensemen at Collier, whose nine points tied a season low. But Connecticut’s offensive output didn’t match its defensive effort, and the Lynx were able to overcome their star’s off night.

Maybe winning one match along the way will be enough to start a best-of-five series. Yet it still feels like the Sun – considering the job they did in slowing down Collier – missed an opportunity to take control of the series. — Cream

Is Minnesota’s depth the key to another championship run?

On a night when Collier was struggling offensively, as Charlie noted, she got the help she needed. Three Minnesota starters scored in double figures and everyone who played for the Lynx scored at least four points in at least twelve minutes. Courtney Williams, who spent most of her career in a Sun uniform, had a special impact. She led the Lynx with a team-high 17 points and also had 5 rebounds, 4 assists and a steal.

Minnesota won four championships in seven years, most recently in 2017, with rosters full of future Hall of Famers. This version of the Lynx is built differently, but it is two wins away from a return to the finals. — Barnes