Phoenix battled hard against Las Vegas in Game 1.
But with another important player out, Phoenix was no match for the top-seeded Aces on Saturday, who easily defeated the No. 8 seed Mercury 117-80 to advance to the WNBA playoffs' second round.
The Aces went on a record-setting 3-point shooting spree to win the series 2-0 and progress to the semifinals, where they will play the winner of the best-of-five series between the No. 4 seed Seattle Storm and No. 5 seed Washington Mystics. The Storm won Game 1 and with a victory on Sunday, they will have won the best-of-three series.
In the first quarter, Las Vegas led 34-30 thanks to a combined 67.5% field goal shooting from the Aces and Mercury. However, as the Mercury began to lose steam, the Aces maintained their momentum into the second quarter and continued to pour it on throughout their rout.
To increase their advantage to 63-44 at the break, the Aces outscored the Mercury 29-14 in the second quarter. In the process, they made a WNBA playoff halftime record 11 3-pointers. They hit 23 of their final 36 attempts from beyond the arc, breaking the previous record set by the WNBA in a single game. No WNBA team had ever made 20 3-pointers in a single game either the regular season or the playoffs before to this past Saturday.