After the Aces 'humbled' the Fever, Indiana's season is on the line against a reigning WNBA champion in its element

LAS VEGAS — The refrains were clear: the Las Vegas Aces are a different team in the postseason. They know what it takes. These are WNBA champions and Olympic gold medalists.

On the eve of the WNBA playoffs, the Indiana Fever coach and players each shared the same sentiment in different ways. These aren't the Las Vegas Aces the Fever faced with success in the regular season, winning two of those matchups and coming two buzzer-beaters from the sweep.

These are the postseason Aces, a collective licking its lips, waiting for the bell to ring.

"The last four games for us felt like 2 o'clock on a Friday in school and you can't wait for that last hour to be done, and it was just kind of dragging on," Aces head coach Becky Hammon said of the end of the regular season.

School's officially out. The Aces are teaching a lesson anyway.

This is always their time, regular-season record (31-13) be damned. The evidence is all around Michelob Ultra Arena in three WNBA championship banners. A 102-85 demolition of the sixth seed in Game 1 of the best-of-three series underlined the point. Game 2 is on Tuesday in Indianapolis.

The Aces' core trio, who in Hammon's most important estimation "understand and like the pressure," busted through the door as only they can.

A'ja Wilson describes it as just doing her job, but few can do it the way she does. The four-time MVP one-upped an earlier performance by two-time MVP Breanna Stewart and tied a career playoff high in scoring (38 points) and rebounds (16) with the most efficient 30-point playoff game in WNBA history (78.9% shooting).

It was the first time in postseason history a player had at least 20 points, 3 blocks and 2 steals in any half. Her early defense on both Caitlin Clark on the perimeter and Aliyah Boston inside set the tone, and she finished with 4 blocks, 2 steals and 2 assists.

"She was a clinic tonight," Hammon said. "There was nothing she couldn't do."

Jackie Young , who, alongside Wilson, formed the second-most productive duo in the league behind the Fever 's MVP candidates, scored 21 with a team-best 10 assists and three 3-pointers. The Aces were 9 of 19 combined from behind the arc. Four-time WNBA champion point guard Chelsea Gray added 14, tying Wilson with seven trips to the free throw line and dishing out 8 assists.

"It's the preparation they've had building up the last four or five years," Hammon said. "Every year we get a little bit better, hopefully, in these situations. But experience and work are the things you trust in the playoffs."

The Fever don't have it. Beyond a tight, balanced first quarter, they lacked the next level of urgency, desperation and discipline required in a series many felt was the best one for Indiana.

"The sense of urgency has got to be different," White said an hour before tip-off. "The discipline has to be different. Every game is an opportunity for us to grow in that area. I still think we're kind of young sometimes in that area."

The Fever's frustration appeared to grow in the third quarter as the deficit ballooned out of reach. They trailed by 15 at the half, and didn't come out of the locker room improved in any way. The disparity grew to 27 by the 1:32 mark of the third as defeat seeped its way into them.

Passes dinged off cutters, missed rotations led to open looks. White raised her hands wide in bewilderment. Clark spun in irritation. Boston lingered in lost wonder. Kelsey Mitchell was rendered ineffective.

No one leaked out in transition, a task made all the more difficult by the Aces shooting nearly 65% in the first half and barely cooling off. The Fever handed the Aces 28 points off 17 turnovers, able only to score 18 off the Aces' identical number.

"They're good defenders, but at the same time, we made it hard on ourselves, too," Clark said. "Our actions were sloppy, I thought what we were running just wasn't great, and just nobody got an easy or open look."

Steph Talbot's length stifled Clark and the Fever's ensuing ball movement, while Wilson's blocks around the court put them in a further bind. They have to rely on offense — their defense is shoddy, particularly when faced with the league's second-best scoring squad. Boston finished with a team-high 18 points, though she took only six shot attempts in the first half. Clark had 15 points and 10 assists with 6 turnovers. Mitchell scored 12, nearly all of which came in a 3-of-12 first half.

Afterward, White's report card detailed "urgency in moments," a quality that paled in comparison to their competition. There is still a gap between the emerging Fever and the clear front of the class, all respect to the Liberty and Lynx. Forty-eight hours between games, their championship-aspiration season on the line, isn't enough time to fully erase it.

"Oftentimes, you have to be humbled first, right? I mean, that's life," White said. "You don't always learn from the successes. You learn from being humble, and so I think for us, we felt the difference in the intensity level."

They'll have to try to ratchet it up after an uncharacteristic unraveling that would be unlikely to happen twice. The Aces took care of business winning on their home court, now it's on the Fever to do the same and let the cards fall where they may in a Game 3 back in Las Vegas.

The 1-1-1 format isn't one that Hammon likes, but she does enjoy tinkering in a series more than regular-season matchups.

"In the playoffs, I feel like you could start to pick apart the other team's identity a lot more thoroughly," Hammon said.

She's elite at it, as her track record indicates. She's won the WNBA title three of her four years coaching in the league, only missing the Finals once in 2024. Her own experience and work is every bit as important and trustworthy as that put in by her players.

Despite a 17-point victory that put everyone else on notice to the No. 3 seed, it was Hammon's words to heed heading into the next one.

"That's not a team that you want to give any life to," she said of the Fever.

And the Aces know best how to snuff out the oxygen this time of year.