Mercury advance to WNBA Finals, Fever push Aces to Game 5

The Mercury trailed, 68-55, heading into the fourth quarter but pulled to 70-69 on Sami Whitcomb’s 3-pointer with 4:46 left. Bonner’s 3-pointer pushed them ahead, 72-70, and she hit another 3 with 2:03 left for a 77-73 lead.

Minnesota’s Kayla McBride hit a 3-pointer — her sixth of the second half — to cut it to 77-76 with 1:04 left. The 38-year-old Bonner then made a pair of free throws to push the Mercury ahead, 79-76.

Bonner scored 11 points in the fourth quarter. Satou Sabally scored 21 points.

Phoenix will play in the Finals for the first time in four years and try to win its first championship since 2014.

McBride led Minnesota with 31 points on 6-of-11 shooting from 3-point range. Courtney Williams added 20 points.

Phoenix’s Kahleah Copper hit a 3-pointer early in the third quarter to give the Mercury their first lead of the game at 41-38. But the Lynx responded with a 23-9 run, highlighted by a three 3-pointers from McBride.

The Lynx jumped out to an early 12-1 lead but the Mercury slowly chipped way at the deficit. Thomas hit Bonner for a layup just before the halftime buzzer to tie the game at 38.

Sabally led the Mercury with 18 points before the break.

Fever 90, Aces 83 — All-Star center Aliyah Boston finished with 24 points and 14 rebounds and Kelsey Mitchell scored 25 points to help Indiana avoid elimination against second-seeded Las Vegas.

The best-of-five series is now tied, 2-2, with a winner-take-all Game 5 set for Tuesday in Las Vegas.

Sixth-seeded Indiana closed it out after Las Vegas mistakenly called an extra timeout with 30.1 seconds left in the game. The ensuing technical foul gave Indiana one free throw and possession of the ball, which forced Las Vegas to foul after the ball was inbounded. The Fever made all three free throws to extend the lead to 87-77.

“It was a good old-fashioned mistake,” Aces coach Becky Hammon explained after the game.

The television broadcast also showed Hammon telling her team in a late huddle they had two timeouts and a reset timeout remaining. She reiterated that point after the game.

The Fever used their “Stranger Things” uniforms, perhaps trying to send a message it wouldn’t let the high-powered Aces run roughshod over a team still missing four key, injured players — Caitlin Clark, Sophie Cunningham, Sydney Colson, and Aari McDonald.

Boston and Mitchell then delivered it by leading the Fever to their third straight elimination-game victory in this year’s playoffs. They won the final two games against Atlanta after losing Game 1 in the best-of-three first-round series.

Boston went 10 of 13 at the free throw line while Mitchell had four assists. Odyssey Sims had 18 points and made four key free throws to close it out. Lexie Hull added seven points, seven rebounds, and four steals.

“It’s just being confident,” Boston said. “The fans were great, everyone showed out, and we were confident shooting the ball.”

The Aces were led, as usual, by four-time league MVP A’ja Wilson, who had 31 points after a poor shooting performance in Game 3. Wilson had her 17th career playoff 30-point game to move within one of the league record that is shared by Diana Taurasi and Breanna Stewart. She became the seventh player in league history to hit the 1,000-point mark in her playoff career with 1,024 and added nine rebounds, four steals, three blocks, and three assists.

Jackie Young had 18 points and nine assists, and Chelsea Gray was the only other Las Vegas player to reach double figures with 12 points.

This time, though, the Fever played it differently.

“I think we were the aggressor,” Fever coach Stephanie White said. “And usually, when we’re the [aggressor] and move the ball, good things happen for us. We attacked. We played with a sense of urgency, we made the right reads and the right plays. The ball moved really well and we found the open player.”

It showed.

Indiana led nearly the entire first quarter and retook the lead for good when it closed the first half on an 11-2 spurt to take a 46-38 halftime lead. The Fever never trailed in the second half, but the Aces certainly made it difficult.

They forced a quick timeout after scoring the first five points of the third quarter and closed to 71-69 midway through the fourth. Boston and Sims answered that run with back-to-back baskets and Indiana managed to get enough loose balls and make enough free throws to send the series back to Las Vegas thanks, in part, to Hammon’s miscue.