Following a thrilling climax to their opening-round series, the Las Vegas Aces continue their pursuit of a fourth WNBA Finals appearance since 2020 when they host Sunday’s semifinal Game 1 vs. the Indiana Fever.
Second-seeded Las Vegas rolled into the postseason on a 16-game winning streak, which the Aces extended to within a game of the league’s all-time longest with a rout of Seattle in Game 1 of their opening-round series. But after an 86-83 loss in Game 2, Las Vegas needed a Jackie Young tip-in in the closing seconds to avoid elimination.
The 74-73 win Thursday advanced the Aces to their seventh consecutive semifinal round, which expands to a best-of-five format. Las Vegas looks to win its third WNBA championship in four seasons but must first overcome surging No. 6 seed Indiana, which took two of three games in the regular-season series with Las Vegas.
“They haven’t seen the real Aces,” Las Vegas coach Becky Hammon said. The teams last faced in July, before the Aces went on their lengthy win streak and climbed to second in the standings.
“They caught us when we were in a bit of turmoil,” Hammon continued. “They whooped us in one of those stretches. We’ll buckle in, hone in where we can.”
The Fever overcame a Game 1 loss in their series with third-seeded Atlanta to win the next two, including an 87-85 finale Thursday. Kelsey Mitchell’s 24 points and Aliyah Boston’s 14-point, 12-rebound double-double paced Indiana in the Game 3 victory.
Sunday’s contest begins Indiana’s first semifinal appearance since the 2015 season, when the Fever advanced to the WNBA Finals. For veteran Natasha Howard, a member of that Fever team that lost to Minnesota in the championship round 3-2, continuing on in the postseason is a long time coming.
“It feels good because in 2015, that could have been our game (in the do-or-die Game 5),” she said. “I’m just so excited we’re back with this group of young women, but the job isn’t done yet.”
Fever coach Stephanie White, who was at the helm of that 2015 Finals run, credited Howard’s experience for buoying an Indiana team that faced a variety of injuries this season — most notably, that of second-year star Caitlin Clark.
The Indianapolis Star reported Friday that Clark, who averaged 16.5 points and 8.8 assists in 13 games during the regular season, cannot join the Indiana roster at any point in the postseason due to being left off of the active roster list at the beginning of the playoffs.
The Fever will thus continue to lean on Mitchell, averaging 20.2 points per game; Boston, who has put up 15 points and 8.2 rebounds per game; and Howard, scoring 11.4 points per game with 6.6 rebounds a contest.
Balance led Indiana past Atlanta in the last series, with all five starters scoring in double figures in the finale. The Fever bring that into the semifinals against one of the most dominant individual players in WNBA history, A’ja Wilson.
Wilson is a candidate to win her second straight, and fourth overall, Most Valuable Player Award, to go with the Defensive Player of the Year honor she already earned for 2025. Her 38 points were critical to the Aces’ Game 3 win over Seattle.
–Field Level Media
