The Indiana Fever’s remarkable season will continue after eliminating the Atlanta Dream in stunning fashion on Thursday with an 87-85 win in the deciding Game 3 of their first-round series. Aliyah Boston’s go-ahead bucket with 7.4 seconds remaining proved to be the difference and sent the Fever to the semifinals for the first time since 2015. 

The Dream went ahead by five, 85-80, on a 3-pointer by Rhyne Howard with 2:32 to play, but did not score again. The Fever locked in defensively and closed the game on a 7-0 run. Kelsey Mitchell hit a jumper, Lexie Hull drove inside for a layup and Boston snuck open below the basket for the game-winning bucket. Odyssey Sims then added a free throw with 1.2 seconds remaining.

While the Dream boasted the second-best offensive rating in the league during the regular season, they struggled to reliably create good looks in this series, and that issue eventually ended their season. After Howard’s 3, they had three turnovers and went 0 of 3 from the field, including Brionna Jones’ prayer at the buzzer. This is a disappointing end to the season for a Dream squad that won a franchise-record 30 games and earned the No. 3 seed. 

The Fever were big underdogs heading into this series due to their injury problems. Including Caitlin Clark, they lost five players to season-ending injuries and Damiris Dantas was added to the injury report for this series with a concussion. They refused to give up, however, even after falling down 1-0 in this matchup, and will now take on the winner of the Las Vegas/Seattle series.

Boston finished with 14 points, 12 rebounds and six assists on 6 of 11 from the field in a brilliant all-around outing, while Kelsey Mitchell led the way in the scoring department for the Fever with 24 points. Indiana held Atlanta to 12 points in the fourth quarter and 29 in the second half.