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 got to the rim, 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.
Now that the game is in the books, let's take a closer look at how the Fever pulled off their dramatic last-minute comeback.
2:05 -- Mitchell magic
We'll pick things up with just over two minutes to play, after Howard had given the Dream a five-point lead. The Fever needed an immediate response and got one from Mitchell, who has put the offense on her back ever since Clark went down. After an initial drive was cut off, Mitchell pitched the ball back to Boston for a hand-off.
Boston's screen eliminated Gray, and Mitchell zoomed to the rim. Even though Jones was sitting in drop coverage in an effort to protect the basket, Mitchell was too fast for her and snuck in a layup to cut the deficit to three.
1:37 -- Atlanta's collapse begins
The Dream struggled on offense for much of the second half, and completely fell apart over the final few minutes. After Mitchell made it a three-point game, the Dream walked the ball up the floor and mostly stood around watching Jordin Canada dribble for 18 seconds.
Canada eventually gave the ball up to Naz Hillmon, who wanted nothing to do with it and threw a grenade to Allisha Gray. She put up an airball for a shot clock violation, finishing off a completely wasted possession here from the Dream.
1:05 -- Jones throws it away
The Dream got a stop following the shot clock violation and again walked the ball up the floor. This time they did have a plan, but it went awry.
Canada entered the ball to Jones in the post, then went to set an off-ball screen for Howard, who sprinted toward Jones. Howard was wide-open, but Jones mistimed her pass, throwing it behind her and out of bounds for a critical turnover.
43.1 -- Hull gets to the rim
Without Clark, the Fever have to work much harder for their offense and spent all night running off screens and taking hand-offs from Boston. They didn't deviate from that plan in the final minute.
On a single possession they ran Hull off a stagger screen, Mitchell through an elevator screen, tried to set up a hand-off between Boston and Mitchell that got blown up and eventually went to a hand-off between Brianna Turner and Hull. All of the action finally discombobulated the Dream and Hull got a straight line drive to the rim for an easy layup to make it a one-point game.
28.8 -- Howard comes up short
With their lead down to one, the Dream really needed a good possession. They went to a horns set with Canada controlling the ball and had her dribble left while Howard ran off a Jones screen the other way. Odyssey Sims got wiped out by Jones screen, which left Howard wide-open for a 3-pointer.
Howard led the league in 3-point attempts per game this season by a wide margin (9.6), but shot just 32.2%. This one came up well short. For the night, Howard was 7 of 18 from the field, including 2 of 8 from behind the arc.
7.4 -- Boston breaks free
Instead of calling a timeout after Howard's miss, Stephanie White let her team play. To no surprise, they went to a Boston-Mitchell hand-off. Canada fell down, which forced Jones to step up toward Mitchell, who tried to thread a bounce pass into Boston.
Jones deflected the pass, and all three of Jones, Canada and Mitchell went for the loose ball. Mitchell came up with it and gave it to Sims, who spotted Boston all alone under the basket for the go-ahead bucket. The Dream never recovered after Jones and Canada hit the deck, and the Fever took advantage of the broken play.
4.8 -- Hull steals the ball
The Dream called a timeout to set up a potential game-winning play, but the Fever shut down all of their options and they had to take another timeout. The second try was more of the same, but this time Howard tried to force a pass to Jones, which Hull read and picked off.
Sims was eventually fouled, but only made one of the two free throws, giving the Dream one last chance.
0.0 -- Jones' prayer is not answered
The Dream had a reset timeout, which in the WNBA allows teams to advance the ball but does not give them the option to huddle up. While Atlanta had an easier time getting the ball in this time, Jones was immediately smothered by Boston and had to toss up an off-balance leaner from behind the arc that never had a chance.
