The No. 6-seed Indiana Fever shocked the women’s basketball world on Sunday, folding the No. 2-seed Las Vegas Aces in a 16-point routing, and winning their first road game in Las Vegas ever.
Two more wins would cement them as one of the most unlikely team to ever make the WNBA Finals, but two more wins against A’ja Wilson is a tall task. That challenge continues in Game 2 on Tuesday at 9:30 p.m. ET (ESPN).
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Is it even possible to solve Kelsey Mitchell?
Amidst a hurricane of praise for Wilson on Sunday morning, a different MVP candidate showed up: Kelsey Mitchell.
Mitchell, who’s spent all eight of her seasons with the Fever, is new to the second round of the playoffs. She had never even made the postseason until last year when Indiana was swept by the Connecticut Sun. Mitchell isn’t the preferred face of the Fever, but I’ll be one to say it: She is their best player. She finished fifth in MVP voting, receiving 15 fourth-place votes and 48 fifth-place votes—a likely indicator that her name will appear next to Atlanta’s Allisha Gray as the two All-WNBA guard selections. Mitchell is the quickest, twitchiest guard in the WNBA, and shoots 40 percent from 3 to boot. There is no harder perimeter matchup left standing in the playoffs.
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34 points from the left hand of Mitchell packed up the Aces in a game where her co-star Aaliyah Boston went ghost. Now that’s scary.
Playoff series usually host a wonderful buffet of schematic adjustments, especially in best-of-fives. If you watched Game 1, you’ll know that Mitchell’s performance won’t be solved by a scheme. She wasn’t abusing drop coverage or taking advantages of reckless switches. She was simply burning every defender Las Vegas put on her. Hammon showed hard hedges and blitzes, and Mitchell was able to find Natasha Howard rolling to the basket unmarked and hit tough shots over double-teams. She got out in transition quickly, attacking before the Aces had time to find their preferred matchups. Even in the half court, Dana Evans and Jackie Young failed to make life difficult. You can’t ask the Vegas coaching staff to pull a rabbit out of a hat. They need their defenders to play better man defense and move their feet. It’s not easy, but it’s as simple as that.
Can the Aces’ extras make pockets of impact?
A team of Las Vegas’ caliber will always have more in the tank, especially after such a dominant end to the regular season. The biggest challenge will be generating higher quality shots for their stars. They didn’t foul or turn the ball over at a much higher rate than Indiana. Both teams made five 3s, with the Aces only attempting one more. The margins of the game were identical, but Vegas shot 10 percent worse from the field.
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Wilson is probably the greatest player the league has ever seen, but she doesn’t have many physical advantages over Boston, who played more than passable defense on Sunday. As talented as she is in straight isolation possessions, it could be worth the effort to try to get A’ja involved in more pick-and-rolls to force the Fever into abusable switches. They looked better when they moved the ball (as most teams do) but they still settle for static elbow and short corner isolations a little too much.
Dana Evans played well, Jackie Young played okay and Chelsea Gray certainly could have played better. Jewell Loyd was outright bad. NaLyssa Smith and Kierstan Bell filled their usual roles of big bodies thrown onto the court without intention. No- ne should be asking the Vegas extras to carry an offensive load, but it would be nice to see them make a momentum play every once in a while. Indiana does that well.
Lexie Hull, Aerial Powers and a handful of other misfit names filling the minutes for the injured Fever repeatedly have found moments of meaning. Last series, Powers was a burst of energy off the bench. Hull has a knack for hustle plays while also having the ability to hit big shots when she gets open. Indiana is deploying players who weren’t even rostered in May, but they’re all proving to be useful.
In that regard, the Aces are still searching. They don’t need their non-stars to be stars, they need them to be useful. Loyd was one of the league’s best scorers in Seattle, but her Vegas tenure has fluctuated between average and absent. In games where she isn’t featured heavily, she needs to find better ways to impact offense. The Aces don’t need Seattle Loyd, but they need a guard who can spot up and hit 3s consistently. It doesn’t have to be off-the-dribble, over a double-team or worthy of SportsCenter’s top 10 in the morning. It just has to go in.
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The Aces still have the advantage
Despite a 1-0 series deficit and embarrassing headlines, Las Vegas is still the better team on paper. They also have been the better team for the last 25 games. They were the better team all the way up until they got beaten by 16 points.
So what does that say? Are they now suddenly worse, and should be adopting an underdog mentality against the sewn-together Fever? Some hungriness would probably help, but it’s hard to say definitively that they aren’t the same team we just saw win 17-straight. Indiana is still the worse team on paper, but they’re up a game, and that matters a whole lot more. Las Vegas doesn’t need to pull any alarms; the lights would get drowned out in the city’s neon sea anyway. A two game hole heading back to Indiana would be hard, but not impossible to scale. Overreactions can wait until Wednesday morning. For now, expect a more motivated Aces team to rear their head tonight.
Game information
No. 6-seed Indiana Fever (1-0) vs. No. 2-seed Las Vegas Aces (0-1)
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When: Tuesday, Sept. 23 at 9:30 p.m. ET
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Where: Michelob ULTRA Arena in Las Vegas, NV
