The Guru’s WNBA Playoff Roundup: Six-Seed Indiana Starts Semifinals Upsetting 2-Seed Las Vegas While Top-Seed Minnesota Rallies Over Four-Seed Phoenix

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

A’ja Wilson made history early Sunday becoming the first WNBA player to win the league’s MVP award for the fourth time from its national media panel. She previously claimed the Associated Press’ award, both ahead of Minnesota’s Napheesa Collier.

The former star for Dawn Staley’s South Carolina’s first NCAA champions then went out and had a double double 16 points and 13 rebounds for her two-seed Las Vegas squad in front of 10,409 at Michelob ULTRA Arena but in the first of two Game 1s in the best-of-five semifinals the rest of the afternoon belonged to the sixth seed and injury riddle Indiana Fever coming out of the first round upset of three-seed Atlanta to pull a second-straight road surprise, an 89-73 win over the Aces.

Top-seed Minnesota tossed aside another looming high seed loss rallying over four-seed Phoenix before a Target Center crowd of 10,121 in Minneapolis for an 82-69 victory two days after the Mercury dethroned defending champion New York to dispose of a rematch of last season’s finals.

Indiana beat Las Vegas 2-1 in their season series but all those games occurred before the Aces took off in August winning their last 16 games and the first-round opener against Seattle before the Storm rallied in Game 2 and fell just short at the finish allowing Wilson’s squad to advance.

The Seattle management Sunday went on to announce that coach Noelle Quinn’s contract was not being renewed.

Indiana against Las Vegas might have been without Caitlin Clark and four other players lost for the season before the playoffs and Damris Dantas, still in concussion protocol, but former Ohio State standout Kelsey Mitchell continued to rise to the moment, scoring a personal playoff-best 34 points, second highest in Fever history.

The Fever’s early double-digit lead in the third quarter shrank to three with 2:51 left in the period but then Indiana erupted on an 11-0 run and was never threatened the rest of the way.

Mitchell, fifth in the WNBA MVP voting, was 12-23 for 52.2% from the floor, including 4-6 from deep.

“I think what you guys see is just me trying to just be a kid in the playground,” said Mitchell, who was third in the league in scoring during the season with a 20.2 points per game average.

Odyssey Sims, signed after Indiana lost all its point guards, scored 17 points, while Natasha Howard had 12 points and 11 boards.

“We wanted to come in and be the aggressor right away to make sure that we were dictating on the defensive end, and we were dictating from a pace standpoint,” said Indiana coach Stephanie White. “We knew that they were going to make runs. They made a big one in the third and we responded with a big one.

“it's one game, it's a long series. But to come in here and to be able to steal this one was big for us.”

Wilson was limited to 27.3% from the floor, shooting 6-22. Jackie Young score 19 to lead the Aces, while reserve Dana Evans scored 14 points and Chelsea Gray scored 13.

It was the Aces’ first home loss since suffering the worst home loss in WNBA history, a 53-point setback to Minnesota on Aug. 2 before launching the long winning streak.

While Las Vegas was injury-free, the Fever were without Clark, the reigning rookie of the year prior to Dallas’ Paige Bueckers this month, who only played 13 games and had been out since July 15 with a right groin pull. Also lost were Chloe Bibby (knee), Sydney Colson (knee), Sophie Cunningham (knee), and Aari McDonald (foot).

“They won all three categories,” Aces coach Becky Hammon addressed the physicality of the game. “They played with a greater sense of urgency; we couldn’t catch up to their pace. We had 12 assists tonight in 40 minutes, 12, and 12 turnovers.

“Clearly, we had no answer for Mitchell.”

In the second game, Minnesota trailed Phoenix by nine points and seven at the half before going ahead though the Mercury kept threatening down the stretch only to be thwarted by Courtney Williams, who finished with 23 points, and Kayla McBride, who scored 21.

Collier had 18 points and nine boards.

McBride’s 3-pointer put the Lynx up 73-67 under four minutes left in regulation and they maintained control the rest of the way.

Williams was credited by Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve, the former La Salle star from South Jersey, as being a leader at the half devising ways to limit the Mercury’s attack.

The former South Florida star had a career-high five steals in the second half along with 12 of her points.

“When she's out there hooping and confident, it's contagious,” McBride said about Williams. “It just becomes a lot of fun out there playing the game within the game.”

North Philadelphia’s Kahleah Copper out of Rutgers had 22 points while Maryland’s Alyssa Thomas out of Harrisburg scored 18 for Phoenix, but Satou Sabally was held to 10 points, six off her average.

The Mercury had 42 points in the paint by the half but just seven the rest of the way and only 22 points across the final two periods.

“They really did a good job defensively in the second half,” said Phoenix coach Nate Tibbetts. “They turned it up at that end.”

The Lynx won the series 3-1 during the season but the Mercury were missing key players, including Copper, who didn’t play in any of them.

“The other (Phoenix) teams that we saw didn't look anything like this, so we knew it would be a learning experience for us,” Reeve said.

Television coverage for Tuesday’s contests will air on ESPN with the Minnesota game airing at 7:30 p.m. and the Las Vegas game at 9:30 p.m.

The Game 3 doubleheader when sites switch on Friday will air on ESPN2 at 7:30 p.m. from Indianapolis and 9:30 p.m. from Phoenix.