Aces’ wild Game 3 escape vs. Storm has fans buzzing nonstop

Earlier in the night, the 30-win, three-seeded Atlanta Dream fell to the Indiana Fever in Game 3 of their first-round WNBA playoff matchup. Thus, it wasn’t the craziest thing in the world to think that the Las Vegas Aces, the best team in the WNBA over the past month or so, could end up seeing their semifinal streak come to an end with back-to-back losses to the seventh seed, the Seattle Storm.

But now, the Aces can breathe easy now that they’ve taken care of business against the Storm with a 74-73 win in Game 3 on Thursday night. However, getting past the Storm was the furthest thing from easy for the Aces. In fact, in the fourth quarter of Game 3, the Aces found themselves down by one, 73-72, with 19.3 seconds to go after Erica Wheeler drilled a pullup from midrange.

On the subsequent possession, the Aces looked towards A’ja Wilson, co-winner of the 2025 Defensive Player of the Year Award, to take them home. Wilson’s shot from midrange missed, but thankfully for them, Jackie Young was at the right place at the right time to tip it home to regain the lead.

The Aces would then hold on to the lead, as they put up a gallant defensive stand and forced a miss from Wheeler, with the Storm running out of time to capitalize on a loose ball that could have given them a shot at another game-winning attempt (horrible arena lighting management notwithstanding).