LAS VEGAS — Call it the duel in the desert. The Las Vegas Aces and Phoenix Mercury will meet in the 2025 WNBA Finals.

The franchises, located roughly 300 miles apart, have both won multiple titles but have never met in the championship series before.

The No. 2 seed Aces outlasted the No. 6 seed Indiana Fever 107-98 in overtime Tuesday in Game 5 of their semifinal series. Now they host the Mercury on Friday in Game 1 (8 p.m. ET, ESPN). Phoenix, the No. 4 seed, eliminated the No. 1 seed Minnesota Lynx 3-1 on Sunday.

The Aces, led by four-time MVP A’ja Wilson, won WNBA titles in 2022 and 2023. The Mercury’s championships were in 2007, 2009 and 2014, all with Diana Taurasi as the team’s star. She retired after last season, and a retooled roster — led by triple-double standout Alyssa Thomas — has Phoenix back in the Finals for the first time since 2021.

The WNBA Finals will be a best-of-seven format for the first time, so this could be a history-making series. Here is a breakdown of how the teams match up.

Regular-season series: Las Vegas went 3-1 against Phoenix

June 15: Mercury 76, Aces 70 (at Las Vegas)
June 29: Aces 84, Mercury 81 (at Phoenix)
Aug. 15: Aces 86, Mercury 83 (at Phoenix)
Aug. 21: Aces 83, Mercury 61 (at Las Vegas)

How Phoenix got here

The Mercury lost Game 1 at home in the best-of-three first round and on the road in the best-of-five semifinals, so they’ve proved their mettle away from home and in elimination games.

After a 13-point loss in Game 1 of the semifinals against Minnesota, Phoenix won each of the next three games by single digits, dominating in the fourth quarter in each. In Game 2, the Mercury overcame a 20-point deficit to tie the record for largest road comeback in WNBA playoff history. The Game 3 win at home will most likely be remembered for the controversial final 22 seconds, but also featured another big Mercury finish. In Game 4, Phoenix started cold, trailing by 14 in the first quarter and by 13 entering the final frame, before pulling out the 86-81 victory.

How Las Vegas got here

Las Vegas was .500 at the All-Star break before riding a 16-game winning streak into the playoffs. That hot streak extended to 17 with a Game 1 win in the first round — but then the Aces lost three of their next six postseason games before Tuesday’s overtime win clinched a spot in the Finals. Las Vegas beat Seattle 2-1 in the best-of-three first-round series, then had to go the distance to eliminate No. 6 Indiana in the best-of-five semis.

On Tuesday, Wilson recorded her WNBA-record third career 35-point game in a series-clinching win. The four-time MVP also became the first player with 35 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists in a playoff game.

What we’re hearing about the Aces

Considering their long winning streak, Las Vegas was the hottest team coming into the playoffs. But they struggled to close out both of their playoffs series so far.

They were nearly upset by No. 7 seed Seattle in the first round, pulling out a Game 3 victory 74-73. Then it took overtime in Game 5 of the semifinal for them to get past Indiana, despite the Fever being depleted by injury and foul trouble.

This is something to be concerned about going against the Mercury, who seem to be peaking in the playoffs. That said, the Aces have a great deal of WNBA Finals experience to rely upon: Both Chelsea Gray and Wilson have been Finals MVPs for the Aces. Jackie Young also has been a crucial part of Las Vegas’ past championships. Jewell Loyd won two WNBA titles when she was with Seattle.

It took about 2½ months for the Aces to figure themselves out this season. Once they did, they were formidable the rest of the regular season. They now have a few days before the Finals to get a handle on where they’ve fallen short in the playoffs despite advancing, because they can’t have the same kind of lapses against Phoenix. — Michael Voepel

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Phoenix Mercury reach Finals after taking down Minnesota Lynx

The Phoenix Mercury come from behind to beat the Minnesota Lynx in Game 4 to reach the WNBA Finals.

What we’re hearing about the Mercury

Rebuilds usually take years to be successful, but in their first season without Taurasi and Brittney Griner, the franchise’s two former cornerstones, the Mercury are headed back to the Finals for the first time since 2021.

Embracing an underdog mentality has fueled the Mercury throughout the season. Phoenix returned just two players from 2024 — Kahleah Copper and Natasha Mack — and is the fifth team in league history to lose at least 70% of its scoring from the previous season (71.3%), according to ESPN Insights. The other four teams all had losing records the following season.

With two of their big three — Copper and Satou Sabally — missing extended time in the regular season because of injury, Phoenix wasn’t fully healthy until late July. At the start of August, Sabally told ESPN she felt her team was playing at 80% of its capability. The Mercury hoped that through the last month of the regular season they’d meld all of their pieces together. They did.

Their rookies — Kathryn Westbeld, Sami Whitcomb and Monique Akoa Makani — were revelations. The addition of DeWanna Bonner in early July provided their bench with needed experience. And their big three have thrived together.

They were underdogs again as they entered the postseason, facing defending champion New York in the first round and this year’s title favorite, Minnesota, in the semifinals. The Mercury are the fourth team in WNBA history to eliminate both teams that participated in the previous year’s Finals within a single postseason. — Kendra Andrews

What is this series’ X factor?

The team whose big three plays the best will win the title.

So often in championship games or series, we look for one unsung hero, one seemingly unforeseen moment that will decide the outcome. This series won’t be that complicated or unpredictable. It will come down to the performances of Wilson, Young and Gray for the Aces and Thomas, Sabally and Copper for the Mercury. Sure, there might be a big Sami Whitcomb 3-pointer, or a stretch where Dana Evans supplies the Aces some extra energy — but this is about the stars.

Their impact was on display in both Las Vegas’ and Phoenix’s semifinal close-out games. Wilson (35), Young (32) and Gray (17) combined for 84 of the Aces’ 107 points; Thomas (23), Sabally (21) and Copper (13) were the Mercury’s three leading scorers in their comeback win over Minnesota in Game 4. The advantage will go to the trio that separates itself, even if it’s by a small margin.

Throw out the first time these teams met in the regular season (a Mercury win) because Wilson did not play. In the final three meetings, the MVP was the best player on the floor, averaging 25.0 points. Young scored in double digits in each of those games and Gray had at least nine. Conversely, in one Phoenix loss, Sabally had just 10 points on 3-of-14 shooting. In the most recent matchup, Copper had just six points. Las Vegas won all three of those games. The Aces will win their third title in four years if that recent history repeats itself. — Charlie Creme

How big is Phoenix’s rest advantage after Las Vegas had to go to overtime to win Game 5 on Tuesday?

I don’t think it will be much of a factor. Las Vegas will still get two full days off without any travel. While the Aces will sleep well after going the distance against the Fever, they will be doing it in their own beds. Even with the extra two days to prep, the Mercury still had to wait to find out their opponent. The rest might help a little, but 48 more hours at this time of year probably means little. Adrenaline is overcoming any fatigue for most of these players, and both teams have all their regular rotations fully healthy heading into the best-of-seven series. — Creme

How they match up

While only two players returned from last season’s Mercury team (Copper and Mack), the Aces have six players back from last season, and five of them — Wilson, Gray, Young, Kiah Stokes and Kierstan Bell — were also on Las Vegas’ 2022 and 2023 title teams.

During the regular season, the Aces and Mercury were close to each other in categories such as scoring average (83.6 and 82.8), net rating (plus-3.7 and plus-3.4) and effective field goal percentage (50.6 and 50.2). Same for 3-pointers per game, although the Mercury had the slight edge there with 9.4 to the Aces’ 9.1.

There was a little more separation with defensive rating, as the Mercury were at 102.5 and the Aces 104.4. In the past, the Aces have been a better defensive team than they have been this year, but Las Vegas has improved in that area since its season turnaround began in early August.

As for the teams’ two biggest stars, Wilson and Thomas have faced off 26 times in their WNBA careers, counting both regular season and playoffs. Wilson has a 17-9 edge overall, 6-3 in the playoffs. Wilson has averaged 21.0 points, 10.1 rebounds and 2.8 blocks in those playoff matchups against Thomas, who has averaged 15.4 points, 8.4 rebounds and 5.1 assists.

The teams’ coaches, Las Vegas’ Becky Hammon and Phoenix’s Nate Tibbetts, both spent several years as NBA assistants before taking over as WNBA head coaches. Hammon was a San Antonio Spurs assistant from 2014-2022, and Tibbetts was an assistant from 2011-2023 with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Portland Trail Blazers and Orlando Magic. — Voepel