It doesn’t feel formulaic when you’re in the thick of it.
And yet, the Basketball Reference page commemorating the 2024 WNBA Semifinals series between the New York Liberty and the Las Vegas Aces will read that way, aside from all the Hall-of-Fame names listed.
New York, the league’s #1 seed and clear best team, pulled off a true gentlewoman’s sweep of their tough but ultimately inferior opponent. The Liberty handled Game 1 with relative ease, but Game 2 was a dogfight that the home team pulled out nonetheless before the series shifted to Las Vegas. There, the Aces — fueled by an inimitable level of desperation — cruised to a Game 3 to make it a series.