Indiana Fever guard Kelsey Mitchell named finalist for WNBA Most Valuable Player

Indiana Fever guard Kelsey Mitchell is one of the five finalists for the WNBA MVP award, the league announced Friday. She joins A’ja Wilson, Napheesa Collier, Alyssa Thomas, and Allisha Gray as finalists, and the award will be announced at 11:30 a.m. on Sunday.

Coach Stephanie White got on the team airplane’s PA to share the news as the Fever were traveling to Las Vegas to play the No. 2 Aces in the WNBA playoff semifinals.

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“Would anybody who might happen to be a top 5 finalist for WNBA MVP please stand up?!” she said to the cheers of the rest of the Fever.

Mitchell, who was named to the Associated Press All-WNBA First Team, led the WNBA in 3-pointers made with 111 and scored the second-most points with 890 in the regular season. She ranked third in points per game at 20.2, breaking Tamika Catchings’ team mark set in 2003. Catchings is the only Fever player to win the MVP award, earning it in 2011.

Mitchell led the Fever in minutes (1,381), set the team’s mark for points in a season, became the career 3-pointers record holder at 669, eighth-most in WNBA history, and has 11 30+ point games in her career, passing Catchings for the Fever record.

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Mitchell was also a WNBA All-Star this season for the third consecutive year and Eastern Conference Player of the Week twice.

The No. 6 Indiana Fever will play the No. 2 Las Vegas Aces in a best-of-five series in the WNBA semifinals starting on Sunday at 3 p.m. in Las Vegas. The series continues on Tuesday at 9:30 p.m. at the Aces, then returns to Indianapolis for Game 3 and Game 4 (if necessary).

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Kelsey Mitchell named finalist for WNBA Most Valuable Player