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The Las Vegas Aces are headed back to the WNBA Finals.
The Aces fended off the Indiana Fever 107-98 in a wild overtime game on Tuesday night at Michelob Ultra Arena to close out their Game 5 semifinals series. That officially earned them a trip to the WNBA Finals, where they’ll now 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 to 2017.
Wilson and Jackie Young dominated for Las Vegas in the win in historic fashion. Wilson finished with 35 points and 8 rebounds while shooting 13-of-27 from the field. Young finished with 32 points and 10 assists. They are now the first duo in WNBA history to each put up 30 points in a single playoff game. It was also Wilson’s eighth career 30-point playoff game, which is tied for the most in league history, and her second career 35-point outing in a deciding game.
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Though the Aces allowed the Fever to come back from a near-double-digit lead late, it was Chelsea Gray who 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-balance 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 eke out the nine-point win.
The Mercury beat the Lynx in Game 4 on Sunday amid Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve’s suspension 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 (8 p.m. ET, ESPN).
Fever rally to force OT after losing Kelsey Mitchell
The Aces tried to pull away multiple times in the first half, but the Fever responded every time and ended up going into the locker room down just two points despite committing nine turnovers in the first 20 minutes.
The Aces finally started to pull away in the third quarter, and even took a seven-point lead briefly, but play stopped suddenly in the period after Fever star Kelsey Mitchell went down with a scary knee injury.
Mitchell, who was spotted reaching toward her knee after hitting a 3-pointer on the other end, suddenly went down under the basket 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. 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.
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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 with a pair of free throws just inside the one-minute mark. 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 then missed a potential winner at the buzzer, which sent the game into overtime.
Sims led Indiana with 27 points and 6 assists after she shot 7-of-14 from the field. Boston had 11 points and 16 rebounds when she fouled out, and Lexie Hull had 12 points and 7 rebounds while shooting 0-of-5 from behind the arc.
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The Fever have been battling injuries all season, and have been without star Caitlin Clark for months. While they hung in there until just about the end on Tuesday night, Mitchell’s injury would have only made things more difficult for them in the Finals had they made it there.
Even though they haven’t looked as dominant as they did during their 16-game win streak to end the regular season, the Aces have found a way to play for yet another championship.
Here’s how Game 5 unfolded in real time:
