A’ja Wilson poured in 35 points, Jackie Young had career playoff highs of 32 points and 10 assists and the Las Vegas Aces punched their ticket to the WNBA Finals with a 107-98 overtime victory over the visiting Indiana Fever on Tuesday.
The second-seeded Aces won the best-of-five semifinal series 3-2 and will face the fourth-seeded Phoenix Mercury in the WNBA Finals, which will begin Friday in Las Vegas. The Aces are making their third trip to the finals in four years after winning the title in 2022 and 2023.
“Look, we have a special group here,” Aces coach Becky Hammon said. “I’m not surprised that we’re here because I know who they are, I know how they’re built. I know most times when I’m pissed off, they’re pissed off too. They get upset about the right things, and there’s something to be said about that. …
“I’m very honored to be their coach.”
Wilson and Young became the first teammates to each register 30-plus points in a WNBA playoff game.
“We worked so hard to get to this point,” Wilson said in the ESPN postgame interview. “People counted all of us out, but we’re making it to the finals right now. We’re not done. We’re not gonna be complacent, but it feels good right now.”
The four-time and current league MVP added eight rebounds, five assists, four steals and four blocks to her stat line.
Chelsea Gray scored eight of her 17 points in overtime for Las Vegas, which won 16 straight games to end the regular season.
The short-handed Fever, seeded sixth, pushed the game to overtime even after losing star guard Kelsey Mitchell to injury and seeing center Aliyah Boston foul out late in regulation. Odyssey Sims led six Fever players in double figures with 27 points while adding six assists. Natasha Howard scored 16 points, and Boston paired 11 points with 16 rebounds.
Mitchell had 15 points before leaving the game in the third quarter with a noncontact leg injury. During the same play on which Boston received her fifth foul, Mitchell signaled for medical attention while grabbing at her left knee.
What appeared to be a potential leg cramp turned into several minutes of trainers working on the leg before Mitchell was able to stand and walk off with assistance.
Fever coach Stephanie White said Mitchell experienced “a lot of lower-body cramping” and was taken to a local hospital to receive fluids.
“Unfortunately, we have a lot of experience rallying around teammates,” White said. “This group is all heart. It’s just really hard to put into words.”
The Fever made 9 of 14 field-goal attempts in the fourth quarter to dig out of a 77-68 deficit in the last 7 1/2 minutes. Boston sank a layup and Sims hit two free throws to tie it at 84 before Boston was called for a loose-ball foul with 27.1 seconds to go, her disqualifying sixth of the game. Indiana unsuccessfully challenged the call.
Young made two free throws, and the Fever used their reset timeout to advance the ball. Wilson tried and failed to steal the inbound pass to Sims, who took it in for a layup with 22.5 seconds left to tie the game 86-86 and ultimately set up overtime.
Las Vegas’ first three field goals of overtime were 3-pointers, one by Jewell Loyd and two by Gray. In the final minute, Shey Peddy’s trey cut a six-point Indiana deficit in half, but Young’s pair of foul shots with 20 seconds left cemented the result.
In the first half alone, there were 13 lead changes and 14 ties while neither team led by more than five points. Las Vegas was up 47-45 at the break.
Wilson scored 13 points in the third period, including the Aces’ final seven — a triple, two free throws and a 2-pointer — as Las Vegas built a 71-63 advantage with 10 minutes to go.
–Field Level Media
