The Las Vegas Aces clinched the No. 1 seed in the WNBA playoffs after Washington Mystics defeated the New York Liberty on a buzzer-beating shot Sunday afternoon on the final day of the regular season. The eight-team playoffs begin Wednesday.
The Mystics’ Brittney Sykes took an inbound pass from Natasha Cloud with five-tenths of a second left and hit the winning shot for a 90-88 victory Sunday. The Liberty finished the season 32-8, putting them in second place regardless of the result of the 33-6 Aces’ game vs. Phoenix later Sunday.
New York and Washington have a few days off until facing each other again. The Liberty will host No. 7 seed Washington, 19-21, in a best-of-three first-round series starting Friday (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2) at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
The Aces, who also were the top seed last season when they won the franchise’s first championship, will face the No. 8 seed Chicago Sky, 18-22, in the first round. That series starts Wednesday (10 p.m. ET, ESPN) at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
In the other first-round series openers,…
