September 25, 2023
Locked On Women’s Basketball: WNBA semifinal playoff action is off & running
By The Next
Missy and Matthew recap Game 1 of each series, then look ahead
The WNBA semifinals have begun and, of course, they are the focus of this episode of the Locked On Women’s Basketball podcast. National correspondent Missy Heidrick had Las Vegas beat reporter Matthew Walter on to talk about the first games which pitted No. 1 Las Vegas against No. 4 Dallas, and second-seeded New York against No. 3 Connecticut. Each series is a best-of-five to determine who advances to the WNBA Finals.
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First, they looked at the Las Vegas Aces’ Game 1 victory against the Dallas Wings. The Aces held a 49-45 lead at the half but were able to extend that in the second and cruise to a final score of 97-83.
“When other teams don’t score, the Ace will crush you, crush you, crush you in transition,” Matthew said. “And that’s what they do best when they get out and run, when Chelsea Gray gets the ball in her hands and you’ve got A’ja Wilson running the floor and Jackie Young and Kelsey Plum running to the corners or to the wings or wherever on the floor, it’s over for other teams. and you saw it right transition game, they were hitting threes, they were getting the ball to A’ja in transition and it just, they dominated that third quarter and that was what differentiated, what was a four-point game at halftime to what was a double-digit win for the Aces.”
Then, they turned their attention to New York and Connecticut. The Sun came out swinging and took Game 1 on the road, 78-63 from the second-seeded Liberty.
“They played almost perfect on both sides of the ball and we talk about it so much in playoff series as the road team, all you gotta do is go on the road and steal one game,” Matthew said. “When you get that first game win as the road team, the amount of confidence it gives you to win the series is exponentially higher.”
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