The No. 7 Seattle Storm came out on top on Tuesday, claiming an 86-83 Game 2 win in the first round of the 2025 WNBA Playoffs to snap the No. 2 Las Vegas Aces' 17-game winning streak — extending the best-of-three series to a winner-take-all finale.
Fueled by a combined 50 points from Skylar Diggins and Nneka Ogwumike, Seattle rallied back from a 14-point second-half deficit to keep their playoffs run alive — capping Tuesday's comeback by outscoring Las Vegas 16-4 in the last four minutes of the matchup.
"We are not unfamiliar with tight games," Ogwumike said afterwards. "We are not unfamiliar with playing from behind."
"Nobody's found the answer to this [Las Vegas] equation for, what, 16, 17 games," noted Diggins. "For us, it was coming out and showing that we weren't scared to play against them.... I thought in the first game that we played hesitant and I was proud of the way that we responded tonight."
Diggins also acknowledged the impact of Seattle's raucous fans on the game's outcome, saying "Obviously, we had a great home crowd on our back to feed off of."
Thanks to the league's new home-away-home first-round playoff structure, the shared home-court advantage is making series sweeps less likely.
Seattle will face a tougher task on Thursday, when the Storm attempts to defeat the Aces again — this time in front of a Las Vegas home crowd.
"We know this team is tough to beat one time and we have to beat them again," said Diggins. "But we bought ourselves another 40 minutes tonight."
How to watch the Seattle Storm vs. the Las Vegas Aces in Game 3
No. 7 Seattle and No. 2 Las Vegas will square off in a winner-take-all Game 3 to determine which team advances to the 2025 WNBA semifinals on Thursday.
The clash tips off at 9:30 PM ET, with live coverage on ESPN2.