AP Recap

PHOENIX (AP) — A’ja Wilson put in work in the paint, getting bucket after bucket despite multiple defenders draped all over her.
She got plenty of help from Chelsea Gray, Jewell Loyd and Dana Evans. The trio started raining 3s early in the second quarter.
The Las Vegas Aces — once again — were an offensive force in the WNBA Finals, and they were well on their way to their third championship in four seasons. They finished off a four-game sweep of the Phoenix Mercury with a 97-86 victory on Friday night.
“These guys are elite,” Aces coach Becky Hammon said.
Wilson had 31 points and nine rebounds while Gray and Jackie Young each scored 18 points. Five players scored in double figures.
The Aces made quick work of the league’s first best-of-seven Finals. They scored 54 points in the first half and averaged more than 90 points per game in the series.
Wilson came to the postgame press conference wearing giant ski goggles from a Champagne celebration in the locker room and carrying a pink tambourine, shaking it after answers she liked.
“This is a symbol of the joyfulness we have right now,” Wilson said, grinning. “I’m just so grateful to be with this bunch — and that’s not the alcohol talking.”
Wilson came to the postgame press conference wearing giant ski goggles from a Champagne celebration in the locker room and carrying a pink tambourine, shaking it after answers she liked.
“This is a symbol of the joyfulness we have right now,” Wilson said, grinning. “I’m just so grateful to be with this bunch — and that’s not the alcohol talking.”
Wilson — honored as the Finals MVP — led the way for the Aces despite a poor shooting night. The four-time regular-season MVP finished 7 of 21 from the field, but made 17 of 19 free throws. Gray made four 3-pointers, including two in the fourth quarter to help turn back a final rally by the Mercury.
The Aces led 76-62 going into the fourth quarter, but the Mercury went on an 8-0 run that cut the deficit to 76-70 with 7:56 left. That was as close as they would get.
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Kahleah Copper led the Mercury with 30 points, shooting 12 of 22 from the field. Alyssa Thomas had 17 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists.
Mercury coach Nate Tibbetts <a class="Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement" href="https://apnews.com/article/mercury-coach-nate-tibbetts-ejected-wnba-finals-555e8d47402d52fd1818b122d40bb2ee" data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA">was ejected in the third quarter</a> after receiving two quick technical fouls from official Gina Cross. Tibbetts was arguing a foul call against Mercury guard Monique Akoa Makani, and reacted in disbelief as he was escorted off the court.
DeWanna Bonner and Copper also got called for technical fouls in the fourth quarter.
The Aces never trailed in the series clincher, building a 30-21 lead by the end of the first quarter on 55% shooting. Loyd, Gray and Evans made three straight 3s early in the second quarter to put Las Vegas ahead by 19.
Las Vegas settled for a 54-38 halftime advantage. Wilson had 14 points before the break while Gray added 10.
Tibbetts said the Aces were a tough team to guard all series.
“Unbelievable team — they were just playing at an extremely high level,” Tibbetts said. “We put ourselves in position to have a chance in a couple games, but what a run they’ve been on. Hitting big shots after big shots.”
The Mercury were without forward Satou Sabally, who suffered a concussion near the end of Game 3. They suffered another injury blow on Friday when Thomas had to leave just before halftime after taking a hard hit to her right shoulder on a screen from Loyd.
Thomas returned for the second half but was hampered by the injury.
The Mercury enjoyed a deep playoff run under Tibbetts, but couldn’t find a way to slow down the Aces. Phoenix made it to the finals after beating the defending champion New York Liberty in the opening round and knocking off the top-seeded Minnesota Lynx in the semifinals.
Phoenix lost in the WNBA Finals for the second time in five years, also falling to the Chicago Sky in 2021. The Mercury have won three championships, with the last coming in 2014.
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2025-finals-aces-mercury-game-4-recap

Game Recap: Las Vegas Aces vs. Phoenix Mercury (Finals, Game 4)

PHOENIX (AP) — A’ja Wilson made a turnaround jumper with 0.3 seconds left, capping a stellar 34-point night and lifting the Las Vegas Aces over the Phoenix Mercury 90-88 on Wednesday night for a 3-0 lead in the WNBA Finals.
The Aces are one victory away from winning their third title in four seasons. Game 4 is Friday in Phoenix.
Las Vegas had what looked like a comfortable 76-59 lead entering the fourth quarter, but the Mercury closed the gap to 84-83 with 3:06 left on Kahleah Copper’s 3-pointer. DeWanna Bonner tied the game at 86-all on a 3-pointer with 1:33 left and made two free throws with 1:01 left to tie it at 88.
That set up Wilson’s heroics in the final seconds. The four-time MVP made her turnaround jumper over Alyssa Thomas and Bonner as the Mercury’s home crowd groaned.
“I just needed the bucket to go in,” Wilson said. “I didn’t see who was in front of me. I didn’t care. It’s the finals.”
Phoenix had one final try to get a bucket, but Bonner’s quick jumper was no good.
The 6-foot-4 Wilson continued her dominant postseason run, making 11 of 20 shots from the field add adding four assists. She is averaging more than 26 points in 11 postseason games. Jackie Young added 21 points.
Wilson’s 291 total points over 11 games is a WNBA postseason record.
The Aces took a 2-0 lead by winning the first two games in Las Vegas, but the Mercury hoped for a boost from their boisterous home crowd in Game 3. Instead, Las Vegas thrived in the hostile atmosphere, showing the poise of a veteran team that’s been in high-pressure situations many times.
Bonner led the Mercury with 25 points while Satou Sabally had 24. Copper scored 11 of her 17 points in the fourth quarter. Thomas was one assist short of a triple-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds.
Sabally left the game with 4:26 left in the fourth quarter when she got tangled with Young and then fell into Kierstan Bell, hitting her head on the side of her leg. Sabally stayed on the ground for several minutes before being helped off the court.
Las Vegas used a 17-0 run midway through the first quarter to take an early 21-8 lead and never trailed again. Jewell Loyd came off the bench and made four 3-pointers in less than two minutes to lead the offensive onslaught.
Phoenix responded with its own 13-0 run to tie the game, but could never regain the advantage. The Mercury trailed 26-23 heading into the second quarter.
The Aces pulled away late in the second quarter to take a 55-43 lead into halftime. Las Vegas shot 9 of 16 (56.3%) from 3-point range, including a combined six from bench players Loyd and Dana Evans.
Mercury coach Nate Tibbetts said his team’s defense needed to improve after it gave up 89 points in Game 1 and 91 in Game 2, but things weren’t any better on Wednesday. The Aces used their early 3-point barrage to turn the game into another high-scoring shootout.

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Game Recap: Las Vegas Aces vs. Phoenix Mercury (Finals, Game 3)

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Jackie Young set a WNBA Finals record with 21 points in the third quarter, finishing with 32 to carry the Las Vegas Aces to a 91-78 victory over the Phoenix Mercury on Sunday for a 2-0 lead.
Game 3 is Wednesday in Phoenix, where the Aces hope to put a stranglehold on the series as they chase their third title in four years. The Mercury have the tall task of needing to win four of five games to capture their fourth championship, which would tie the WNBA record.
Young, who tied a career playoff high in total points, fell just short of the league record of 22 points for any postseason quarter. Three players have accomplished that, most recently in 2021 when Young’s teammate, Jewell Loyd, hit that number for Seattle against the Mercury.
A’ja Wilson scored 20 of her 28 points in the first half and had 14 rebounds. Chelsea Gray finished with 10 points and 10 assists.
Kahleah Copper led the Mercury with 23 points, Satou Sabally scored 22 and Alyssa Thomas had 10 while coping with foul trouble much of the game.
Like in Game 1 when they began with a 10-2 lead, the Mercury came out strong, scoring the first seven points. Phoenix wound up with 27 points in the first quarter, but then the Aces held the Mercury to a combined 24 points over the following two periods.
By that point, the Aces had taken charge, leading 76-51 going into the fourth and eventually going up by as much as 22 points.
Any team facing Aces coach Becky Hammon in a Game 2 in Las Vegas is asking for trouble. She ran her record to 9-0 with this victory, the average margin being more than 17 points.

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Game Recap: Phoenix Mercury vs. Las Vegas Aces (Finals, Game 2)

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A’ja Wilson and Dana Evans each scored 21 points, and the Las Vegas Aces beat the Phoenix Mercury 89-86 in Game 1 of the WNBA Finals on Friday night.
Wilson scored 12 of her points over the final 14 minutes, and Phoenix’s Satou Sabally missed a long 3-pointer with 2 seconds left that would have tied it.
Game 2 is Sunday in Las Vegas.
Evans led an Aces bench that outscored the Mercury’s reserves 41-16. Reserve Jewell Loyd scored 18 points for second-seeded Las Vegas, and starter Jackie Young had 10. Wilson had 10 rebounds, and Chelsea Gray had 10 assists.
Kahleah Cooper scored 21 points for the fourth-seeded Mercury. Sabally added 19 points and Alyssa Thomas had 15 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists.
Copper scored 19 points in the first half, one off her playoff career high for a half. Her personal best also came against the Mercury, when she scored 20 points for Chicago in the first half of Game 3 of the 2021 Finals. Copper’s five 3-pointers in the first half topped her previous high of four for a game.
If this game was any indication, these Finals — a best-of-seven series for the first time — figure to be tight throughout. The largest lead was nine points, and there were 12 lead changes and nine ties.
The Mercury threatened to take control several times, only for the Aces to respond with a run. In the end, it was Las Vegas that nearly pulled away, only for Phoenix to keep it close.
With Phoenix down a point with 24.6 seconds left, Thomas went to the free-throw line but missed both. Young was fouled on the other end with 13.5 seconds remaining and made both free throws for the final margin.
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Game Recap: Phoenix Mercury vs. Las Vegas Aces (Finals, Game 1)

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Fever, with about half their roster in street clothes, weren’t supposed to be this kind of challenge for the Aces.
And then when <a class="Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement" href="https://apnews.com/article/mitchell-fever-aces-injury-70d9e64f22798b0ca71944597d93ec7a" data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA">Kelsey Mitchell left Game 5</a> on Tuesday night because of severe leg cramping, victory seemed assured for Las Vegas — only to have Indiana keep fighting back.
But the Aces, pushed to the brink for the second postseason series in a row, survived 107-98 in overtime to advance to the WNBA Finals for the third time in four years. A’ja Wilson, with 35 points, and Jackie Young, with 32, became the first teammates to score more than 30 points in a playoff game.
The second-seeded Aces, who won the league title in 2022 and 2023, will host the fourth-seeded Phoenix Mercury on Friday in the opener of the best-of-seven championship series.
Las Vegas went on a 16-game winning streak to end the regular season, but was pushed to the edge by Seattle in the first round and then Indiana.
“I think that streak we went on prepared us for moments like this, how to fight through the highs and lows of the game,” Wilson said. “It allows us to never take our foot off the gas.”
Indiana made Las Vegas work for it even though the sixth-seeded Fever have been decimated by injuries, with Mitchell added to that list that includes Caitlin Clark and Sophie Cunningham. Coach Stephanie White somehow not only kept the team together, the Fever reached the doorstep of their first Finals appearance since 2015.
“They have been an absolute joy to coach,” White said. “It’s an incredible group of women, an incredibly connected group. They’re a great example to everybody to what it means to just put one foot in front of the other to persevere, to welcome people into the fold, to not give in to circumstance.”
Mitchell had scored a team-high 15 points at the time of her injury. Six Fever players reached double digits, including Odyssey Sims with 27 points and Natasha Howard with 16. Aliyah Boston finished with 11 points and 16 rebounds, but fouled out with 27 seconds left in regulation.
The Aces were closer to a three-woman show, with Wilson coming within three points of her playoff career high. Young, whose <a class="Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement" href="https://apnews.com/article/storm-aces-playoffs-score-5e8e1bc7bbe8868fc54d58086556e4d6" data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA">putback basket</a> in the opening round against Seattle allowed Las Vegas to advance to this round, had a playoff career-high 10 assists.
Chelsea Gray — who briefly went into the locker room in early in the third quarter with an apparent right leg injury — scored 17 points, including eight in overtime.
Las Vegas needed every one of those points because the Fever challenged the Aces throughout, including after Mitchell got hurt. Rather than fade away and concede the playoff series to the home team, the Fever battled to tie the game at 84 on two Sims free throws with 52 seconds left.
After Young made two free throws with 27.1 seconds remaining, Sims answered with a drive down the lane for a layup with 22.5 seconds to go to again tie the game. Young missed a layup in the closing seconds and Jewell Loyd the follow to send the game to overtime.
The Aces then took the lead early in OT and didn’t give it up.
“They would just not go away,” Aces coach Becky Hammon said of the Fever. “The resiliency of (White’s) group. They went through a lot of adversity this year and for Steph to keep everybody onboard &#8230; I thought they did an unbelievable job all the way around. They just gas-pedaled the whole time, and it was tough for us.”

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Game Recap: Indiana Fever vs. Las Vegas Aces (Semi-Finals, Game 5)

PHOENIX (AP) — Alyssa Thomas scored 23 points, DeWanna Bonner made two late 3-pointers and the Phoenix Mercury overcame a 13-point, fourth-quarter deficit to beat the short-handed Minnesota Lynx 86-81 in Game 4 on Sunday to advance to the WNBA Finals for the first time since 2021.
Phoenix will face the Indiana-Las Vegas winner. Indiana forced a Game 5 earlier Sunday with a 90-83 home victory.
“We knew they were going to challenge us today and I’m just proud of how we responded,” Thomas said. “We could have easily given up and be headed to Minnesota right now. But we stuck together and dug deep on defense.”
The Mercury won the final three games of the best-of-five semifinal series. The top-seeded Lynx were playing without Cheryl Reeve, <a class="Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement" href="https://apnews.com/article/lynx-reeve-officials-rant-a763f97451322cbd02a80f532445177a" data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA">who was suspended for Game 4</a> because of her behavior and comments toward officials in Game 3. Minnesota also was without All-Star guard Napheesa Collier, <a class="Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement" href="https://apnews.com/article/lynx-collier-injury-706b1a8309362992433870d1a1aa288a" data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA">who suffered an ankle injury</a> near the end of the Game 3 loss.
Down 68-55 after three quarters, Phoenix 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 — part of the Mercury’s 31-point outburst in the final quarter.
“We didn’t have much of a choice,” Mercury coach Nate Tibbets said. “We were down 13, needed to get stops. And when we get stops, we’re pretty good offensively because we’re playing free and we don’t have time to overthink it.
“We made some great plays, some really good passes. That’s what it took.”
Phoenix’s Satou Sabally scored 21 points.
Phoenix will play for the title for the first time in four years in a bid for 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. The Lynx’s fourth- quarter collapse was a common theme in the series.
“Got to give Phoenix credit for the way they defended in the fourth quarters,” Lynx associate head coach Eric Thibault said. “They switched and made it hard on us. We didn’t get enough quality shots down the stretch.”
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 three 3-pointers from McBride.
The Lynx jumped out to an early 12-1 lead but the Mercury slowly chipped away at the deficit. Thomas hit Bonner for a layup just before the halftime buzzer to tie it 38.
“It was ugly at times,” Tibbets said. “But we kept fighting.”
The Mercury had just two players on this year’s roster — Copper and Natasha Mack — who were with the team in 2024. They are the first team in WNBA history to make two Finals in a five-year span without any of the same players on the two teams.

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Game Recap: Minnesota Lynx vs. Phoenix Mercury (Semi-Finals, Game 4)

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — All-Star center Aliyah Boston finished with 24 points and 14 rebounds and <a class="Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement" href="https://x.com/i/status/1972410287933571333" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA">Kelsey Mitchell scored 25 points</a> to help the Indiana Fever avoid elimination in the WNBA semifinals with a 90-83 victory over the second-seeded Las Vegas Aces on Sunday.
The best-of-five series is now tied 2-2 with a winner-take-all Game 5 set for Tuesday in Las Vegas. The winner faces either top-seeded Minnesota or fourth-seeded Phoenix.
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 — <a class="Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement" href="https://apnews.com/article/caitlin-clark-indiana-fever-05ca033f9a3c5f3aca656980871bb2e2" data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA">Caitlin Clark</a>, <a class="Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement" href="https://apnews.com/article/indiana-fever-sophie-cunningham-injury-ac59327be1fb25e5464fd55347850315" data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA">Sophie Cunningham</a>, 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 <a class="Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement" href="https://apnews.com/article/fever-dream-score-6f4823e740c39c107689b3487377633a" data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA">against Atlanta</a> 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. She had 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 aggressive 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.
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Game Recap: Las Vegas Aces vs. Indiana Fever (Semi-Finals, Game 4)

PHOENIX (AP) — Satou Sabally scored 23 points — including 15 in a stellar fourth quarter — and the Phoenix Mercury beat the top-seeded Minnesota Lynx 84-76 in Game 3 on Friday night to take control of their WNBA playoff semifinals series.
The Mercury have a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five series and can reach the Finals on Sunday with a win in Game 4 in Phoenix.
Sabally hit a 3-pointer to give the Mercury a 78-76 lead with 3:05 remaining and added two free throws with 2:01 left to push the advantage to 80-76. Alyssa Thomas had a steal and layup with 21.8 seconds left that sealed the win, capping a 21-9 advantage in the fourth quarter.
Sabally said it was the team’s defense that made the difference in the final minutes.
“We closed them out, we knew what they were running,” Sabally said. “So we were really well prepared and just trusted each other.”
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A furious Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve was ejected following the Mercury’s final layup, getting her second technical foul.
Napheesa Collier also got hurt on the play, rolling her ankle. She had to be helped to the locker room. Reeve blasted the officiating after the game, saying the game became too physical and Collier “probably has a fracture” though she didn’t give any more details.
Thomas and Kahleah Copper both scored 21 points, highlighting a balanced Mercury offense. It was a tight game throughout with 15 lead changes.
“This is a team that believes in each other — been overlooked a little all year,” Mercury coach Nate Tibbets said. “But one thing we are is tough and we fight, we compete and we did that in the fourth. We made it hard on every possession and that’s what good defensive teams do.”
Minnesota was led by Natisha Hiedeman’s 19 points off the bench. Collier added 17 points on 8 of 15 shooting while Courtney Williams added 14.
Minnesota trailed by four at halftime but rallied for a 67-63 lead heading into the fourth quarter. The 5-foot-8 Heideman gave the Lynx a big boost in the final five minutes of the third, scoring eight points.
The Mercury bounced back from an early deficit, shooting 54.3 % from the field in the first half to take a 48-44 halftime lead. Copper had 17 points before the break on 8 of 9 shooting while Thomas added 11 points and 5 rebounds. Minnesota was led by Collier’s 13 points.
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The Mercury were riding high coming into Game 3 after a 20-point comeback win in Tuesday’s Game 2 that evened the series. It was tied for the third-largest comeback in WNBA playoff history.
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Game Recap: Minnesota Lynx vs. Phoenix Mercury (Semi-Finals, Game 3)

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Jackie Young scored 25 points in her home state, NaLyssa Smith added 16 points against her former team and the Las Vegas Aces beat the short-handed Indiana Fever 84-72 on Friday night in Game 3 of a best-of-five WNBA semifinal series.
The Aces lead 2-1 and would reach their third WNBA Finals in four years with a win Sunday in Indianapolis.
“We just have to get the job done Sunday,” said Young, who played on Las Vegas’ championship teams in 2022 and 2023 and finished her prep career as the Indiana girls’ basketball career scoring leader with 3,268 points. “The job’s not finished yet. Second round, right?”
To achieve its biggest goal, Las Vegas will need A’ja Wilson to shoot better than she did Friday. Wilson opened the game with a 3-pointer, then missed her next 11 shots. <a class="Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement" href="https://x.com/i/status/1971752113048027167" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA">The four-time MVP</a> finished with 13 points on 6-of-20 shooting and had eight rebounds, four assists and three blocks. Chelsea Gray had 15 points and six assists.
Kelsey Mitchell led Indiana with 21 points and Lexie Hull finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Aliyah Boston had 12 points, eight rebounds and four assists for the Fever, who held a 16-4 edge in offensive rebounds.
The Fever got through the first round of the playoffs and beat Las Vegas in Game 1 despite having lost Caitlin Clark, Sydney Colson, Aari McDonald and Sophie Cunningham to season-ending injuries during the regular season.
Indiana wore down late on Friday, going nearly nine minutes between baskets, a stretch that began late in the third quarter. The Aces took full advantage by scoring eight straight to extend a four-point lead to 71-59 midway through the fourth.
“I thought we got a lot of good shots. Didn’t make a lot of them, you know,” Fever coach Stephanie White said. “We missed some opportunities at the free-throw line and then got a little stagnant. They were still in a good spot, though, because we were still getting stops until about the middle of the fourth quarter.”
Las Vegas controlled most of the first half, scoring the first six points of the second quarter to take a 26-16 lead.
But another boisterous home crowd — and Wilson closing the half with 10 straight misses — buoyed the Fever. Three straight 3-pointers helped Indiana charge back within 35-34 at halftime.
The Fever took their first lead on Boston’s layup to open the second half and led most of the third until the Aces clamped down on defense and pulled away.
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“We know how important defense is for us, that’s something that we’ve been really dialed into, something we’ve been focused on,” said Smith, who was traded from Indiana to Dallas during the offseason before landing in Las Vegas. “Defense is like our core focus. When our defense is on, our offense is 10 times better.”

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Game Recap: Las Vegas Aces vs. Indiana Fever (Semi-Finals, Game 3)

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A’ja Wilson bounced back from a rare off game with 25 points and nine rebounds, and the Las Vegas Aces evened their WNBA semifinals playoff series with a convincing 90-68 Game 2 victory over the Indiana Fever on Tuesday night.
The best-of-five series heads to Indianapolis, where Game 3 will be played Friday night.
Wilson made 10 of 18 shots to go with playoff career-high five steals, two nights after the <a class="Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement" href="https://apnews.com/article/wnba-mvp-wilson-aces-9dbf1eb3125c59797f4fd57737684b01" data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA">four-time MVP</a> made just 6 of 22 field goals. NaLyssa Smith added 18 points on 7-of-9 shooting and Jackie Young scored 13, and Jewell Loyd and Dana Evans each had 10 points. Chelsea Gray finished with 10 assists.
Odyssey Sims led the Fever with 18 points and Lexie Hull, who was questionable with a back injury and wore a brace while on the bench, scored 15. Kelsey Mitchell had 13 points and Aliyah Boston 10.
Mitchell scored 34 points in Game 1 as the Fever rolled <a class="Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement" href="https://apnews.com/article/indiana-fever-las-vegas-aces-aja-wilson-17faa1779c3bebbf1c701cf8fc890396" data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA">to an 89-73 victory</a>, but she was held to 4-of-14 shooting on Tuesday.
The second-seeded Aces <a class="Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement" href="https://apnews.com/article/wnba-playoffs-fever-aces-wilson-clark-c4d0312e83d13a8f98c9e7de06dd163b" data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA">came into the playoffs</a> on a 16-game winning streak, but barely got by Seattle in the opening round and then were blown out at home to open this series. This game, in which the Aces led by as many as 26 points, more closely resembled the <a class="Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement" href="https://apnews.com/article/aces-lynx-wnba-playoffs-19860936d5c33ee4cef60365ceb1ad05" data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA">WNBA’s hottest team</a> at the end of the regular season.
But the <a class="Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement" href="https://apnews.com/article/indiana-fever-playoffs-aces-wnba-52f2b57247f2d9affcd8a5503becdd41" data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA">short-handed Fever</a> have proven to be a tough out. Sixth-seeded Indiana upset No. 3 Atlanta in the quarterfinals, and now head home with the chance to close out this series. That despite entering Game 2 with six players out with injuries, including superstar Caitlin Clark, and another in Hull at clearly less than full health.

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