{"id":177680,"date":"2025-09-29T12:47:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T12:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/177680\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T12:47:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T12:47:14","slug":"indiana-fever-stave-off-the-las-vegas-aces-to-force-game-5-as-phoenix-mercury-defy-odds-to-clinch-wnba-finals-berth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/177680\/","title":{"rendered":"Indiana Fever stave off the Las Vegas Aces to force Game 5, as Phoenix Mercury defy odds to clinch WNBA Finals berth"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Behind the imperious trio of Aliyah Boston, Kelsey Mitchell and Odyssey Sims, the Indiana Fever<\/a> fought off the Las Vegas Aces 90-83 to force their WNBA semifinal series to a win-or-go-home Game 5 in Sin City on Tuesday night.\n <\/p>\n

\n The number six seed Fever \u2013 who are playing without superstar point guard Caitlin Clark due to injury<\/a> \u2013 tied up the best-of-five semifinal series after losing back-to-back in Games 2 and 3 versus the two-time WNBA champion Aces.\n <\/p>\n

\n Indiana had a slim lead late in the game when Mitchell \u2013 who finished with 25 points on the night \u2013 hit a pull-up floater that put the Fever up 82-75 with 1:01 remaining. WNBA MVP A\u2019ja Wilson<\/a> responded with a strong layup to cut the lead back to five but crucially missed the and-1 free throw.\n <\/p>\n

\n The Aces were given a lifeline when Fever guard Lexie Hull caught the rebound and was fouled, but missed both free throws. However, Las Vegas guard Jewell Loyd missed a triple with 39 seconds left that would have brought the visitors to within two.\n <\/p>\n

\n Hull didn\u2019t squander the next opportunity at the line when she was fouled after grabbing the rebound off Loyd\u2019s shot, however, sinking two free throws to put the Fever up 84-77 with 36.6 remaining.\n <\/p>\n

\n Las Vegas head coach Becky Hammon then nailed her own team\u2019s coffin after she called for a timeout that the Aces didn\u2019t have with 30.1 left, resulting in a technical foul and loss of possession. Mitchell knocked down the resulting free throw to extend Indiana\u2019s lead to eight.\n <\/p>\n

\n The Fever closed out the game from the line with Sims \u2013 who had 18 points \u2013 and Mitchell combining to hit five of six in the final seconds to neutralize Aces star Chelsea Gray\u2019s back-to-back three pointers.\n <\/p>\n

\n Indiana\u2019s All-Star center Boston poured in a career playoff-high 24 points \u2013 17 coming in the second half. The 23-year-old stuffed the stat sheet, also racking up 14 rebounds, five assists, two steals and two blocks.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201c\u2018We over me,\u2019\u201d she told reporters<\/a> post-game. \u201cThat has been our identity the entire season. We all we got, we all we need. And we\u2019ve stuck with it. I think the beauty of this squad, whether you\u2019re hurt or whether you\u2019re not, everything you do is for the betterment of this team, for every win.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The team-first mentality has been evident in the playoffs, with role players having to step up in the wake of injuries to key players. In addition to Clark, Sophie Cunningham, Sydney Colson, Chloe Bibby and Aari McDonald have all been unavailable.\n <\/p>\n

\n After the game, the Aces squad protested the foul situation.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI was just looking at the fouls,\u201d Wilson said, when asked what she was studying in the box score post-game<\/a>. \u201c(NaLyssa Smith) had five, Jackie (Young) had five, Chelsea (Gray) had five. That\u2019s very interesting to me because, I\u2019m not saying we don\u2019t foul \u2013 yeah, we foul here and there \u2013 but that\u2019s very interesting. We\u2019ll do better, we gotta play better defense.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Head coach Hammon interjected to say, \u201cBy interesting, you mean, \u2018That\u2019s sh*t.\u2019\u201d When Wilson said she wouldn\u2019t say that because she has a brand to protect, Hammon doubled down: \u201cI\u2019ll say it, I have no brand.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n According to CBS Sports<\/a>, across the first four games of the Las Vegas-Indiana series, the Aces have been called for 80 fouls and shot 61 free throws, while the Fever have been called for 69 fouls and shot 87 free throws.\n <\/p>\n

\n The majority of the difference came from Game 4, however, as the Fever shot 34 free throws \u2013 compared to the Aces\u2019 11. The series in general, however, has been relatively even in foul calls and free throws apart from Sunday\u2019s contest.\n <\/p>\n

\"DeWanna<\/p>\n

\n The winner of Tuesday\u2019s hotly anticipated Game 5 will face the Phoenix Mercury, who clinched a surprise WNBA Finals berth in an 86-81 win over the Minnesota Lynx Sunday night.\n <\/p>\n

\n 38-year-old Mercury guard DeWanna Bonner came up clutch, scoring 11 of her 13 points in the fourth \u2013 including three from deep \u2013 to overcome a 68-55 deficit at the beginning of the final quarter. The comeback gave the three-time WNBA champion Mercury their first Finals berth since 2021, when Phoenix fell to the Chicago Sky.\n <\/p>\n

\n The Mercury opened the fourth quarter on a 19-2 run, with Bonner\u2019s second three-pointer giving them a 72-70 lead with 3:39 remaining.\n <\/p>\n

\n Minnesota\u2019s Kayla McBride traded threes with Bonner late in the game as the Mercury maintained a 77-73 lead. With 1:04 remaining, McBride drained her sixth from beyond the arc to make it 77-76 to Phoenix, but Bonner responded with two three throws to extend the lead to three with 42 seconds remaining.\n <\/p>\n

\n The Mercury then held off the Lynx from the line despite a three-pointer with 5.2 seconds remaining from Natasha Hiedeman, booking their ticket to the Finals.\n <\/p>\n

\n Satou Sabally pitched in 21 points to help Phoenix \u2013 who become the first team in WNBA history to make two Finals in a five-year span without any of the same players on the two squads \u2013 on the night, but it was Thomas who led the way for the Mercury with 23 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds as she came close to her second playoff triple-double.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe knew they were going to challenge us today and I\u2019m just proud of how we responded,\u201d Thomas said, according to the Associated Press<\/a>. \u201cWe could have easily given up and be headed to Minnesota right now. But we stuck together and dug deep on defense.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cGot to give Phoenix credit for the way they defended in the fourth quarters,\u201d Lynx associate head coach Eric Thibault said<\/a>. \u201cThey switched and made it hard on us. We didn\u2019t get enough quality shots down the stretch.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Behind the imperious trio of Aliyah Boston, Kelsey Mitchell and Odyssey Sims, the Indiana Fever fought off the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177681,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":{"0":"post-177680","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}