INDIANAPOLIS — Postseason basketball requires a different level of preparation, detail and urgency.
The No. 2 Las Vegas Aces understand that, as rare back-to-back champions with most of their core pieces intact from the 2022-23 title teams. The No. 6 Indiana Fever, an underdog squad flying high on resilience, are learning as they go, including from two vastly different performances in their semifinal series with the Aces.
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“Every game requires a different version of ourselves,” Fever head coach Stephanie White said after practice at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Thursday. “Every game, it’s heightening intensity. Every game, it’s better execution. Every game, it’s [a] different kind of mentality. And most of our group hasn’t been through this before. I say it all the time, I know, there’s no substitute for experience, but [those two games are] a different kind of experience.”
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While the Aces possess background knowledge in those playoff levels, they also understand they can’t skip steps to hang another championship banner. The two games back at Michelob Ultra Arena don’t “carry over,” Aces head coach Becky Hammon said.
“Your experience can carry over; your confidence, you can have carry over in that way,” Hammon said. “But every night, you have to come out and do the same work, and hopefully do it better than you did it the night before.”
The major difference between Games 1 and 2 for the Aces was they actually showed up for work when they hadn’t in Game 1, Aces forward A’ja Wilson said. They threw the first punch in Game 2 after not responding to any in Game 1, and in turn, the Fever couldn’t and didn’t know how to withstand it. It’s a battle of energies that, as Hammon illustrated with fists squared off flat against each other, will come to a head.
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“There comes a point where you have to be so strong-willed in what you’re doing with each other and how you do it, and energy level has to be there that at some point you break the other team with your energy and your execution,” Hammon said. “And that’s what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to impose our will, our energy, our effort, you know, on our opponent. That’s anybody. That’s not unique to Indiana or a series, that’s anybody we step on the court with.”
Game 3 is in Indianapolis on Friday (7:30 p.m. ET). Here’s what else to watch as the best-of-five series hits its backend stretch.
Fever vs. everyone else not named A’ja Wilson
No opponent believes it’ll completely stop the four-time MVP. It’s a matter of forcing Wilson to take tough shots while stopping everyone else in an Aces jersey.
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“We know that she’s going to get hers no matter what,” Fever forward Natasha Howard said. “But [we’re] just making sure we put multiple bodies on her, and make her score and limit other players because if she’s scoring all the points, that’s fine.”
Teams with the most success defeating Las Vegas this year have held Wilson to fewer than 20 points, as the Fever did in Game 1. By the time the Fever held a 14-point lead going into the fourth quarter, the championship trio of Wilson, Jackie Young and Chelsea Gray were in double digits. Only three additional players had scored.
Wilson bounced back in Game 2 with 25 points on a more efficient 55.6% shooting and with contributions from starting forward NaLyssa Smith (18 points, 7-of-9) and sixth player Jewell Loyd (10 points, 2-of-3 from 3-point range).
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“We have to accept that we’re professionals,” Aliyah Boston said of Wilson after practice on Thursday. “People are going to hit shots, are going to hit tough shots, so it’s about if they hit it, take the ball out and push it down on them.”
Points for Kelsey Mitchell
Fever veteran guard Kelsey Mitchell isn’t far behind Wilson on the season scoring list, averaging the third-most points in the league at 20.2. She carried the Fever through a difficult season of injuries to a majority of their guards and had to perform much of the year as their top option with limited assistance. That is still the case in the playoffs.
“I don’t know at this point if there’s ways to get her easier looks, just because we’re kind of limited,” White said on Thursday. “Our four spacers are sitting on the sideline, so that makes it really tough. But I do think that we can move her around more.”
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The Fever will need to employ more off-ball movement, which they succeeded at in Game 1, to free up Mitchell. They need her closer to the 34 points on 18 field-goal attempts she had in the first game than the 13 points on 14 attempts in Game 2.
Paint points and turnovers
Not much went right for Indiana in Game 2. Las Vegas scored 28 points off 22 Fever turnovers (tied for a season high) and 14 on second-chance points.
“They’re too good. We can’t spot ’em 42,” White said after Game 2. “We’ve got to be able to handle that. They’re world champions for a reason. They have a mentality that they know exactly how to compete at this stage and at this level, and we’ve got to be able to respond and we’ve got to be able to rise to that challenge.”
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Like most everything else, the shift in paint points was drastic and telling. Indiana owned Game 1, 50-38, and Las Vegas took Game 2, 48-34. Each team’s success hinges heavily on the two South Carolina alumnae, Wilson and Boston, battling down low in a series that both head coaches made sure to point out has been physical.
Depth will come into play
At least one bench player will make a name for herself in the final games of this series as an X-factor delivering a final push in that battle of wills and energy.
The leading contender is Dana Evans, an Aces guard with 24 points on 11-of-18 shooting in the two games. Hammon spoke highly of her impact and ability to “turn the tide” ahead of Game 2.
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“She’s ridiculously fast,” Hammon said. “I call her ‘Gears’ because she’s just got different gears. She gets to those gears quickly. We want her to be aggressive, be feisty, physical, just a pest definitely, and then just do what you do offensively. We know she’s a great scorer.”
Given their health, the Fever have fewer options. Damiris Dantas remains out with a concussion, and starting guard Lexie Hull did not participate in practice Thursday as a precaution for the back injury she sustained in Game 1.
Aerial Powers played a pivotal role in the first-round series, but has played about as many minutes total (15) in this series as she averaged (16) against Atlanta. Veteran forward Brianna Turner scored a playoff-high six points in Game 1.
