For the third time in four years, the Las Vegas Aces are headed to the WNBA Finals.
The Aces closed out the Indiana Fever 107-98 in overtime in Game 5 of their semifinals series on Tuesday night at Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas. They’ll now advance to the WNBA Finals to take on the Phoenix Mercury in a best-of-seven series.
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If reigning league MVP A’ja Wilson and the Aces can pull off a win there, they’ll have picked up their third championship in four seasons. That’s a dominant stretch the league hasn’t seen since the Minnesota Lynx won four titles in seven seasons from 2011-2017.
Wilson dropped 35 points and eight rebounds while shooting 13-of-27 from the field in the win for Las Vegas. It marked her eighth career 30-point playoff game, which is tied for the most in league history. She’s also the first player in league history with multiple 35-point outings in deciding games. Jackie Young finished with 32 points and 10 assists, too. They’re the first duo in WNBA history to each put up 30 points in a single playoff game.
Though the Aces allowed the Fever to come back from a near-double-digit lead late, it was Chelsea Gray that took over in the extra period. Both she and Jewell Lloyd hit back-to-back 3-pointers early in overtime, and then Gray hit another wild off-balanced one as the shot clock sounded. Then, after the Fever tried to hang in there, Gray snuck through and made a layup that suddenly gave the Aces a six-point lead again with just over a minute left. That was enough to finally put the Fever away and sneak out the nine-point win.
The last week amid Minnesota coach to close out that series. That sent the Mercury into their first WNBA Finals since 2021. The organization last won the Finals in 2014 under head coach Sandy Brondello.
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Game 1 of the WNBA Finals is set for Friday night.
Fever rally to force OT after losing Kelsey Mitchell
The Aces tried to pull away near the end of the first quarter when they mounted a quick 10-1 run in less than two minutes, but the Fever responded and tied things up instantly again by the end of the period. The Aces ended up taking a two-point lead into the locker room at halftime behind 14 points from Wilson. While they were out-rebounded by 12 in the first 20 minutes, their defense forced nine turnovers to help keep them in it.
The Aces finally started to get some separation early in the third quarter after a huge and-one from Young, which gave them a seven-point lead at the time, the largest of the game up until that point. But play stopped suddenly a few minutes later after Fever star Kelsey Mitchell went down with a scary knee injury.
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Mitchell, who was spotted reaching toward her knee after hitting a 3-pointer on the other end, during a stoppage of play. Players and staff ran over and immediately covered the scene up with towels, and she was down for quite some time. Mitchell turned away a stretcher that was brought out by paramedics, and she was helped off the court without putting much weight on her leg whatsoever. The Fever quickly ruled her out, too. She had a team-high 15 points at the time.
That seemed to take a lot of the energy out of the Fever, but only briefly. The Aces pushed their lead to eight by the end of the quarter, but let Indiana back within a possession just past the four-minute mark after Odyssey Sims hit a short bank shot. Sims drew a foul and tied the game back up with a pair of free throws just inside the one-minute mark, too. The Fever had outscored the Aces 21-13 by that point in the fourth quarter.
Though Young missed a layup that would have put the Aces back in front, she drew a foul trying to get the rebound with Aliyah Boston. The foul, which was upheld after a challenge, was Boston’s sixth of the night — which sent her to the bench. Young hit both free throws, but Sims responded with a wide-open layup on the other end just four seconds later. Young missed a layup on the other end at the buzzer, which then sent the game into overtime.
Sims ended up leading the Fever with 27 points and six assists while shooting 7-of-14 from the field. Boston had 11 points and 16 rebounds when she fouled out, and Lexie Hull had 12 points and seven rebounds while shooting 0-of-5 from behind the arc.
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This post will be updated with more information shortly.
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