Beginning Game 2 of the 2022 WNBA Finals, the Las Vegas Aces forgot which basket they were shooting on.
Nevertheless, the WNBA’s most dominant team left the field with a thumping victory forty minutes later.
Tuesday night at the Michelob ULTRA Arena in Las Vegas, Becky Hammon’s squad, which now holds a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five Finals series against the Connecticut Sun, appeared confused at the opening tip. When Sun standout Jonquel Jones tapped the ball to teammate Alyssa Thomas, the Aces starters were confused as to which basket they should defend.
Thomas did not pause for a moment. The three-time WNBA All-Star rushed into the paint and dunked the ball off the glass to score two points easily.
—jack maloney (@jackmaloneycbs)
September 14, 2022
“The Aces are bewildered!” Ryan Ruocco, the play-by-play announcer for ESPN, remarked during the broadcast. “Alyssa Thomas brings it home. The Aces acted almost as if it were their frontcourt rather than their backcourt.”
“Which is fantastic because you warm up at one end of the court,” WNBA icon and color analyst Rebecca Lobo said.
“Very peculiar,” Ruocco concurred.
Fans and journalists were also startled by the error.
—Katie Barnes (@katie barnes3)
September 14, 2022
—Matt Ellentuck (@mellentuck)
September 14, 2022
—Lindsay Gibbs’s (@linzsports) Twitter account
September 14, 2022
The Aces’ two-point gift to their opponents proved to be nothing more than a rounding error in the end, as the rest of the game was dominated by Las Vegas’s dominance.
Due to A’ja Wilson’s 26-point double-double — her fifth consecutive 20-plus point double-double of the 2022 playoffs — Chelsea Gray’s continued offensive ascendancy, and Kelsey Plum’s emergence from a brutal playoff shooting slump, Las Vegas secured a decisive 14-point victory to move within one victory of the franchise’s first-ever WNBA championship.
The victory was so emphatic that the opening blunder was largely forgotten by the final buzzer; the Aces players were not questioned about it, nor did they offer an explanation during the postgame press conference.
The Aces may seal the championship if they win Game 3 in Uncasville, Connecticut. Thursday at 9 p.m., fans may tune in to catch the event on ESPN.
