The Las Vegas Aces are the No. 1 seed in the WNBA playoffs and won three of the four meetings with the Seattle Storm this season.
The Aces are a confident bunch as they open a best-of-five semifinal series with the Storm on Sunday afternoon in Las Vegas.
“We’re playing our best when you need to be,” said guard Chelsea Gray, who scored 27 points and sank 7 of 8 3-pointers as the Aces completed a 2-0 first-round sweep against Phoenix last weekend.
Las Vegas had a record-setting performance as it finished off the depleted Mercury with a 117-80 victory in Game 2.
Becky Hammon, who was named the WNBA Coach of the Year this week, said the Aces understand that their approach must not change regardless of the opposition’s record or their recent head-to-head history.
“You have to go out and execute your game plan and impose your will on your opponent,” Hammon said. “Doesn’t matter who it is. It shouldn’t change your mental or physical approach one bit.”
The Aces’ only loss to the fourth-seeded Storm this season was an 88-78 defeat in Seattle on June 29.
“They lost 10 games so they’re beatable,” Seattle coach Noelle Quinn said of Las Vegas. “Yes, they are No. 1. And yes, they’re tough to beat. This is the playoffs. We’re in a series. We’ll make adjustments. We’ll find ways to exploit and be successful. Anybody is beatable in the postseason. I like the way that we’re playing.”
The Storm have won five of their last seven games after sweeping the No. 5 seed Washington Mystics in the first round, but the two losses in that stretch were against Las Vegas.
“They have a lot of offensive weapons,” center Tina Charles said of the Aces. “They have some great players and that’s why they got to where they are. What happened in the regular season is in the past. We understand that. We’ll still figure out a game plan and how to face them.”
