The Aces are taking care of business

Chelsea Gray is the most unstoppable basketball force Earth has to offer right now, and she continued her ways of making the Connecticut Sun’s lives miserable on Tuesday night. Despite a turned ankle that kept her in the locker room for a few minutes (the only minutes CT could contain her), she poured in 21 points and eight assists to lead the Aces to an 85-71 win to take a 2-0 series lead. The Aces are one game away from making franchise history and earning their first championship.

Game 2 showed an uncharacteristically out of sort Sun team. While their sturdy defense kept things close in Game 1, all three of the Aces’ best scorers were able to get going in Game 2 without issue. MVP and DPOY A’ja Wilson feasted with 26 points on 10-of-13 shooting, and Kelsey Plum got her offense going for 20 points as well.

Las Vegas looked the part of a team that had one of the most historic offenses in WNBA regular season history, and Connecticut has to be very concerned, backed into an 0-2 deficit that no WNBA team has ever come back from in the Finals.

DeWanna Bonner was nowhere to be found for a second night in a row, scoring just two points on 1-of-9 shooting. She’s made just 2-of-18 shots for the entire series. Coach Curt Miller turned to rookie Nia Clouden off the bench early, but she couldn’t spark anything either. Courtney Williams had a solid night, scoring 18 points on 9-of-17 shooting, but Jonquel Jones’ 16 and Alyssa Thomas’s 13 points weren’t enough.

The Sun might literally be playing for their last time as a team on Thursday. The core gave the Mystics a five-game run in the 2019 Finals, but have fallen short ever since. Back-to-back semifinals losses have led them back to this point in the Finals. It’s fair to question if they’ve hit their ceiling as currently constructed.

They’ll have to give it everything they’ve got on Thursday at 9 pm ET on ESPN.