Las Vegas Aces into semifinals after setting WNBA record with 23 3-pointers vs. Phoenix Mercury

LAS VEGAS — Last season, the Las Vegas Aces were crushed by a Game 5 semifinal playoff loss at home to the Phoenix Mercury in a year they really thought they could be WNBA champions.

Saturday, the Aces were the ones doing the crushing. And in record fashion.

Las Vegas set a WNBA record — playoff or regular season — for most 3-pointers in a game with 23, in a 117-80 dismantling of a Phoenix team depleted by injuries and absences.

Aces coach Becky Hammon, in her first season in Las Vegas after eight years as an NBA assistant in San Antonio, moved her squad a step closer to the sought-after title, as the Aces became the first team to advance to the 2022 WNBA semifinals with a 2-0 sweep of the Mercury.

The Aces' offense was unstoppable Saturday, setting the tone by making their first 10 shots from the field, a playoff record. Their 11 3-pointers in the first half were also a playoff record, but they never cooled down in the second half. The Aces are the first WNBA team to ever hit at least 20 3-pointers, and they finished at 63.9 percent from behind the arc.

It was actually a day for offense in the WNBA, as the record for largest playoff margin of victory was set earlier Saturday in Chicago, with the defending champion Sky beating New York by 38 points. The Aces nearly matched that, winning by 37. It was the first time in WNBA playoff history that two teams not playing each other both topped 100 points.

Hammon talked after Game 1 about how her counterpart in her first year guiding the Mercury, Vanessa Nygaard, had dealt with more than any other coach in the league this season.

Center Brittney Griner has been jailed in Russia since February, center Tina Charles had a contract divorce from the team in June, guard Diana Taurasi