The Las Vegas Aces are going back to the WNBA Finals for the third time in the last four seasons after a dramatic 107-98 overtime victory over the Indiana Fever in Game 5 of their semifinal series. This was the second time in league history that a winner-take-all Game 5 went to overtime.
The Aces will take on the Phoenix Mercury in the Finals. Game 1 is set for Friday night in Las Vegas.
The first half was extremely competitive. Neither team led by more than five points and there were 13 lead changes and 14 ties in the first 20 minutes. That trend continued into the middle of the third quarter until a fateful possession in which Aliyah Boston was called for her fifth foul on a moving screen and Kelsey Mitchell went down with an apparent knee injury. Mitchell had to be helped off the floor and did not return.
Initially, the Aces took advantage of the Fever's bad fortune and surged ahead by eight going into the fourth quarter. It seemed as though they would coast to a victory, but the Fever refused to give up. Odyssey Sims tied the game on two different occasions in the final minute, and neither Jackie Young's layup nor Jewell Loyd's putback went down ahead of the buzzer, which sent the game to overtime.
While Young and A'ja Wilson had carried the Aces in regulation, Loyd and Chelsea Gray stepped up in the extra frame. That backcourt duo hit a number of huge shots, including a desperation 3-pointer by Gray to beat the shot clock. Together, they scored the Aces' first 13 points of overtime -- one more than the Fever managed as a team in the final five minutes.
Wilson finished with 35 points, eight rebounds, five assists, four steals and four blocks, while Young went for 32 points and 10 assists. Gray, who battled through an ankle injury that occurred in the second half, added 17 points and six assists.
Mitchell had 15 points for the Fever before going down, while Boston put up 11 points and 16 rebounds. Sims was incredible in defeat, leading the Fever with a playoff career-high 27 points and six assists.
Gray delivers more postseason magic
The Las Vegas Aces needed someone, anyone, to step up.
As overtime of their winner-take-all Game 5 against the Fever began, A'ja Wilson and Jackie Young were the only Las Vegas players in double figures. The contest was beginning to look eerily similar to Game 4, when the Aces let a chance to clinch a trip to the Finals slip because no showed up besides Wilson and Young.
In regulation on Tuesday night, Wilson and Young combined for 61 of the Aces' 86 points, and somehow, they were in danger of losing to a Fever team that entered with six players on the injury list, and saw Kelsey Mitchell get carried off the court in the third quarter and Aliyah Boston foul out in the fourth quarter.
Enter Chelsea Gray.
The veteran point guard, who has come up with so many clutch postseason moments throughout her career, with both the Los Angeles Sparks and Aces, was having a so-so series. Through the first four games, she was averaging 11.5 points and 7.3 assists, but shooting 42.1% from the field.
In the third quarter of Game 5, Gray hobbled off the floor with a right ankle injury after Odyssey Sims accidentally stepped on her foot and caused her ankle to bend awkwardly. When she limped to the locker room, it was unclear if she would return. But three minutes later, she was back out there.
Gray's willingness to play through the pain was admirable, but it wasn't helping the Aces. She finished the second half with two points and two assists on 1 of 6 from the field. Entering overtime, she had seven points and six assists on 4 of 9 shooting -- hardly the type of performance we're used to seeing from her in big games.
Whether it was pride or adrenaline or some combination of both, Gray flipped a switch in the extra frame.
With just over three minutes remaining, she took a pass from Young and buried a tough, contested 3-pointer right in Natasha Howard's face. A few possessions later, the Aces were on the verge of a shot clock violation when Gray flung up a leaning 3 that had no right to go in, but did to give the Aces a five-point advantage. Her sneaky layup on an inbounds play with just over a minute remaining put the Aces up by six and effectively sealed the game.
Neither Wilson nor Young made a basket in overtime, but the Aces pulled away anyway thanks to Gray, who had eight points on a perfect 3 of 3 from the field. She finished the night with 17 points, six assists and three steals on 7 of 12 from the field despite her ankle issue to get back to the Finals for the third time in four seasons and the fifth time in her career.
"It's a blessing to play alongside Chelsea Gray," Wilson said. "The way that I saw the look in her eyes after we lost in Indiana, I knew the Chelsea Gray that we were going to get this game. These are the moments, these are the experience she's been through time after time after time, and she shows up. There wasn't a doubt in my mind that she was gonna get rockin' and rollin'. We love when she does that, and for her to be able to still see the floor and still get people open and still get her own, that's a blessing when you're talking about a point guard. So it was a lot of fun watching 'vintage' Chelsea out there."
In 2022, the Aces coasted to the first title in franchise history thanks in large part to Gray's incredible shot-making. Every time they needed a big basket during that run, Gray would deliver, regardless of the score or situation or defensive attention. She averaged 21.7 points and seven assists in the playoffs that season on absurd 61.1/54.4/83.3 shooting splits and was named Finals MVP.
Since then, however, we've only seen glimpses of that version of Gray. She was sidelined with a foot injury when her teammates captured the 2023 title, and she never looked right in 2024 after missing the beginning of that campaign. This season, too, has been up-and-down.
In overtime on Tuesday, Gray once again looked like the player that so captivated fans all those years ago and once made Las Vegas a genuine superteam. If the Aces want to win their third title in what may be this core's last run together, they'll need Gray to step up a few more times.
