• Top Seeds Las Vegas Aces and Seattle Storm Go Head to Head
• Ryan Ruocco, Rebecca Lobo and Holly Rowe on the Call; LaChina Robinson leads Halftime Report

ESPN’s coverage of the WNBA Finals Presented by YouTube TV begins Friday, Oct. 2, at 7 p.m., on ESPN2, for Game 1 of the best-of-five series featuring the Los Vegas Aces and the Seattle Storm. Ryan Ruocco and Rebecca Lobo will be on the call from ESPN’s Bristol, Conn. campus, while Holly Rowe continues her one-of-a-kind reporting from inside the Wubble in Bradenton, Fla. LaChina Robinson reprises her role as studio host, leading the Halftime Report Presented by State Farm for each game of the series. Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame Inductee Swin Cash will join Robinson as a guest analyst for Games 1 and 2. Games will be available across ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 and via the ESPN App.

ESPN will continue to provide unique angles during in-game coverage with its extensive camera offerings, including the addition of Above the Rim cameras. Expanded access provided throughout the WNBA Finals will include player interviews after the first and third quarters, a walk-off interview with the leading head coach going into halftime, referee audio on major calls throughout each game and mic’d coaches and players for every game.

This marks the fourth time in the past five seasons that the two teams with the best regular-season records will meet in the WNBA Finals. While the Las Vegas Aces and Seattle Storm each finished with 18-4 records, Las Vegas earned the No. 1 seed with a 2-0 mark in head-to-head competition. The Aces defeated the Storm, 82-74, on Aug. 22 and 86-84 on Sept. 13, the final day of the regular season. The five-game series pits the league’s No. 1 scoring offense against the No. 1 defense.  Las Vegas scored a league-best 88.7 ppg in the regular season; Seattle allowed a league-low 76.0 ppg. Conversely, Seattle ranked No. 2 in scoring (87.5) and Las Vegas allowed the third fewest points per game (80.1).

Both Seattle’s and Las Vegas’s rosters are highlighted by multiple No. 1 overall WNBA draft picks. Seattle used the No. 1 selection on Sue Bird in 2002, on Jewell Loyd in 2015 and on Breanna Stewart in 2016. Las Vegas used the No. 1 pick on A’ja Wilson in 2018 and Jackie Young in 2019. The Seattle Storm looks to join the Minnesota Lynx and Houston Comets as the only teams in WNBA History to win four championships, having previously won the title in 2004, 2010 and 2018. This will be the first finals berth for the Las Vegas Aces since the team began play in Las Vegas in 2018. The team has only reached the finals once before, in 2008, when it was still located in San Antonio and known as the Silver Stars.

Wilson is looking to become the fifth straight league MVP to win a championship in the year she won the award. Wilson received 43 of 47 first-place votes and 458 total points from a national panel of sportswriters and broadcasters. Seattle’s Breanna Stewart, the 2018 MVP, finished in second place with 308 points (three first-place votes).

ESPN.com
ESPN.com will continue to track the WNBA Finals with commentary and analysis off each game of the series. Before the games tip off, Lobo and Robinson help break down the Las Vegas-Seattle matchup in a roundtable with ESPN.com’s Mechelle Voepel and Kevin Pelton.

2020 WNBA Finals Schedule

*If Necessary

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