The Las Vegas Aces secured the top seed in the WNBA playoffs when the Washington Mystics defeated the New York Liberty with a dramatic buzzer-beating shot on the final day of the regular season, this past Sunday afternoon. The eight-team playoffs are set to kick off this Wednesday.
Brittney Sykes of the Mystics received an inbound pass from Natasha Cloud with just five tenths of a second left on the clock and sank the shot, leading her team to a 90-88 victory. With this result, the Liberty concluded the season with a 32-8 record, securing second place. The Aces, on the other hand, didn’t necessarily need to win their final game to claim the top seed, but they did so convincingly, defeating Phoenix 100-85 and finishing the regular season at 34-6.
Las Vegas coach Becky Hammon expressed her satisfaction, saying, “If you had told me back in May that we’d finish at 34-6, I would have taken that without hesitation. The level of dedication and effort displayed by our players as professionals, their approach to the game – it was truly exceptional.”
Both New York and Washington now have a brief respite before they face each other again in a best-of-three first-round series starting on Friday at 7:30 p.m. ET, hosted by the Liberty at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
As for the Aces, who held the top seed last season and clinched the franchise’s first championship, they will square off against the No. 8 seed Chicago Sky (18-22) in the first round, commencing Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
In other first-round series openers, the No. 3 Connecticut Sun (27-13) will host the No. 6 Minnesota Lynx (19-21) on Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET, while the No. 4 Dallas Wings (22-18) will welcome the No. 5 Atlanta Dream (19-21) on Friday at 9:30 p.m. ET. Subsequent to these initial rounds, the first-round victors will square off in the best-of-five semifinals.
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