How can Aces and Liberty, WNBA's most recent champions, bounce back after semifinal Game 1 losses?

ATLANTA — Firepower offenses took their star turn in the regular season. Now it's the defenses standing strongest to start the WNBA semifinals .

The No. 2 Golden State Valkyries and No. 4 Atlanta Dream each defended home court on Sunday with sterling defensive performances as two of the league's three best regular-season units. They put the two most recent WNBA champions into an early 0-1 deficit in the best-of-five series.

Despite failing to set the proper tone, they aren't flailing heading into Game 2s on Wednesday.

"We played like ass and only lost by 10," head coach Becky Hammon said following the No. 3 Las Vegas Aces' 71-60 loss to the Valkyries . "Dissect that however you want."

The Liberty could say the same, though first-year head coach Chris DeMarco rides a more insipid tact in press conferences. The No. 8-seeded Liberty dropped Game 1, 92-82, to No. 4 Atlanta on Sunday . After touching the ceiling of their long-awaited potential in the first-round sweep of No. 1 Minnesota, they dropped a few floors again in what's been a wild ride of a season.

The deficit felt larger amid a rocky third quarter of déjà vu mistakes that eventually ballooned into 16 points. The Liberty cut it to five three separate times in the final minutes, nearly cracking the younger, yet more composed Dream roster.

The Aces and Liberty have combined to win each of the past four championships. Las Vegas won three of them and is going for a second back-to-back run. They have the experience factor on their side. Yet each veteran roster committed the same macro problem: It didn't follow the game plan.

"All we talked about for the last 48 hours was rebounding and blocking them out, and we did not do it," Hammon said. "Period. I could end this whole thing right now, don't ask me about the game, it's rebounding. That was it. … But I'll take more questions."

The Valkyries doubled the Aces up on the boards, 52-25. They quadrupled their second-chance points (20-5). The four brought down by A'ja Wilson was one of her worst performances on the boards of the season. Valks center Kiah Stokes, her former teammate on two Aces title teams, held her to 2 of 10 from the floor as her primary defender, and only four baskets after the first quarter. Wilson's average field goal distance of 16.1 feet was the longest against any defender in the last five postseasons, per ESPN Insights .

Hammon described it as "one of our more atrocious games of the season," similar to her critical characterization of the first-round Game 2 loss to Indiana. They bounced back to win Game 3 at home to advance to the franchise's eighth consecutive semifinals.

New York's crew faced inquiries all week about live-ball turnovers and combating the steal-happy Dream's perimeter players. They faced each other twice two weeks ago in the final week of the regular season. They should have, and did, know the foe at hand.

"They have a lot of speed, and they're very good [at] — I don't want to call them gambles because they take the right risks when they do try to get steals," DeMarco said two hours before tipoff.

The Dream tied the WNBA postseason record for points off turnovers with 32 off 21. It provided one-third of their offense. Jordin Canada, namedropped by DeMarco as a defensive problem, had five steals.

And yet, the Liberty were still in it at the end enough that newly awarded Defensive Player of the Year Angel Reese wanted a timeout to settle her team and close out a win.

There aren't major changes for either of the losing teams to make to better match up. As Hammon has said in prior postseason runs, they can't adjust a game plan if they didn't actually follow it in the first place.

Game 2s are on Wednesday before each series shifts to the lower seeds. New York and Las Vegas will try to even the series before taking on home-court advantage. In last year's playoffs, the Mercury and Aces advanced to the WNBA Finals despite losing their semifinal openers.

Allisha Gray exited briefly in the first quarter with a left hand injury in front of her home bench. Dream head coach Karl Smesko had to call a timeout to have her seen on the bench before she left down the tunnel for the locker room. She returned, but reinjured it in the second quarter and immediately went down the tunnel. The team ruled her out for the remainder of the game.

Smesko said he did not have an update postgame.

"Obviously, she's been a huge reason we've been so successful this year, and it was tough to see her not out there," Smesko said. "But [I'm] really proud of how the team pulled together and how they played in the game."

Reese told reporters after the game that winning without Gray, their leading scorer at 19 points per game, "goes to show how talented our team is." DeWanna Bonner scored 23 on an efficient day in 30 minutes off the bench.

In Ballhalla, Jewell Loyd sustained a left leg injury early in the third quarter, the team said, and was ruled out. Hammon said she wasn't sure what happened. The veteran three-time champion missed two field goals in 16:34 as a starter in place of Stephanie Talbot, who did not play with a foot injury. In addition to going without NaLyssa Smith and Dana Evans, the Aces are playing with an ultra-short available rotation.

"You just gotta go with what's sitting on that bench," Hammon said. "Next woman up. Don't have a lot of time to sulk about it. Nobody feels bad for us."