The beginning and end of Game 3 went very poorly for the Seattle Storm.
The Storm shook off a dreadful first half and nearly secured an iconic moment for retiring star Sue Bird on Sunday afternoon. But the Las Vegas Aces forced overtime and ran away with a 110-98 win at Climate Pledge Arena. The Aces lead the best-of-five WNBA semifinal series 2-1.
A’ja Wilson sucked the air out of the room when her layup with 2.9 seconds left gave Las Vegas a 90-89 advantage. But Bird’s three-pointer with less than a second remaining put Seattle ahead again.
With even less than that to work with, a layup from Las Vegas’ Jackie Young survived a review and the teams went to overtime tied at 92.
Earlier, a Tina Charles assist and Breanna Stewart finish tied the game at 52, then Charles gave the Storm their first lead midway through the third quarter. But Seattle was outscored 16-8 the rest of the third.
Stewart’s driving layup handed the Storm a lead to protect with 54 seconds remaining in the game. Jewell Loyd appeared to seal it at the line.
But up by one with seven seconds left, Seattle’s Charles missed both free throws.
Overtime belonged completely, relentlessly to Las Vegas.
A buzzing home crowd of 15,431 couldn’t do much to affect a cold-shooting first quarter that featured four late points from Stewart and none from Loyd. Seattle got a three from Bird after the Aces’ lead hit double digits.
As soon as Ezi Magbegor entered the game, she drew back-to-back and-ones for a team-high six points in the first quarter.
The sloppiness intensified in the early second. The Aces’ lead ballooned to 15 and hung around that mark.
The Storm were able to hold the Aces – the highest-scoring team on average during the regular season – below 80 points in the series’ first two games. That streak clearly was in danger at halftime, when Seattle trailed 48-40.
Wilson had her second straight 30-point performance, finishing with 34 and 11 rebounds for the Aces.
Coming off a 32-point performance in Game 2, Stewart’s streak of eight straight 20-point playoff performances would have come to an end if not for overtime. She turned in 20 points and 15 rebounds.
Seattle’s Gabby Williams returned to the starting lineup after missing Games 1 and 2 while in concussion protocol. She played more than 20 minutes through regulation with six points, two assists and two rebounds.
Bird tacked on eight assists to go with 18 points. Through the first five playoff games, Bird has recorded 38 assists and just two turnovers. She’s the first player in NBA history to hit 30 assists with fewer than five turnovers in a postseason.
Teams have split the first two games of a best-of-five WNBA playoff series 14 times. Historically, Game 3 isn’t much of an indicator of who will win the series. The team that prevails has only an 8-6 all-time advantage.