WNBA semifinals - Game 2 Liberty Aces Sun Lynx results what happened - ESPN

The two-time defending champion Las Vegas Aces are a loss away from elimination after dropping Game 2 88-84 to the New York Liberty in the WNBA semifinals Tuesday at Barclays Center. No WNBA team has come back from an 0-2 deficit to win a best-of-five series, and no defending champion has been in this position.

This series is a rematch of the 2023 Finals, which the Aces won 3-1. Since the championship-sealing 70-69 Game 4 victory in Brooklyn, Las Vegas has lost five games in a row against New York. The skid ties a franchise record for consecutive losses against the same opponent.

The top-seeded Liberty have never won a championship, but they have been to the Finals five times. WNBA teams are 18-0 in playoff history when leading 2-0 in a best-of-five series.

On the other side of the bracket, the Minnesota Lynx evened their series with the Connecticut Sun with a 77-70 victory at Target Center.

The playoffs continue Friday (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN) as the semifinal series shift to Las Vegas and Connecticut.

ESPN looks at how the Liberty moved one win away from sweeping the Aces, and how the Lynx held court against the Sun on Tuesday.

Liberty lead best-of-five series 2-0

It's worth remembering the sample of WNBA series that started 2-0 is small and reflects many that weren't this close. New York won these first two games by a combined 14 points, and only four of the previous 18 featured a combined margin that small — including the only time a team rallied to force a Game 5, with the Phoenix Mercury knotting the series against the Seattle Storm during the 2018 semifinals.

When the NBA staged best-of-five series, we saw six 2-0 comebacks, per ESPN Research. By that 5.6% win rate (6-102), we're overdue for a similar WNBA comeback.