WNBA Wrap: Indiana Fever Stun Las Vegas Aces In Semis, Minnesota Lynx Top Phoenix Mercury

The semi-finals of the WNBA play-offs opened with a surprising result Sunday, as the sixth-seeded Indiana Fever handed the No. 2 seed Las Vegas Aces an 89-73 defeat at home in the best-of-five series.

Kelsey Mitchell set a career play-off high with 34 points for the short-handed Fever, who won without injured players Chloe Bibby, Caitlin Clark, Sydney Colson, Sophie Cunningham, Aari McDonald and Damiris Dantas.

“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,” Indiana coach Stephanie White said.

“… 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.”

Jackie Wilson led the Aces with 19 points and A’ja Wilson had 16 points and 13 rebounds, hours after becoming the WNBA’s first player to win four MVP awards.

It was the Aces’ first home loss since August 2 after they won their last 10 regular-season games on their own court and both home matchups with the Seattle Storm in the first round.

The series remains in Las Vegas for Game 2 on Tuesday before shifting to Indiana for Game 3 on Friday.

Lynx rally past Mercury in Game 1

The top-seeded Minnesota Lynx used a big second half to defeat the fourth-seeded Phoenix Mercury 82-69 in the opener of the other semi-final series in the WNBA.

Minnesota trailed by seven points at half-time before outscoring Phoenix 42-22 over the last two quarters.

Courtney Williams starred for the Lynx with 23 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and five steals, Kayla McBride contributed 21 points and six boards and Napheesa Collier added 18 points and nine rebounds.

The Mercury got 22 points from Kahleah Copper, while Alyssa Thomas scored 18 to go along with eight rebounds, seven assists and three steals.

The Lynx will attempt to take a 2-0 lead on Tuesday before the series heads to Phoenix for Game 3 on Friday.