Sports
How Phoenix reached the WNBA Finals, Indiana forced semifinals Game 5
The Phoenix Mercury are headed to the WNBA Finals. The Indiana Fever and Las Vegas Aces will play one more game to determine which team will face the Mercury.
No. 4 seed Phoenix overcame a 14-point deficit to eliminate the top-seeded Minnesota Lynx with an 86-81 victory on Sunday and advance to the Finals for the first time since 2021.
The Lynx dominated the standings throughout the season but lost back-to-back games in Phoenix, including a controversial ending to Friday’s Game 3, when star Napheesa Collier was injured. Collier missed Sunday’s deciding game, as did Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve, who was suspended after getting ejected Friday and blasting officials in her postgame news conference.
On the other side of the bracket, the Fever beat the Aces 85-77 to force their semifinal series to Game 5 on Tuesday (9:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2).
Here’s how Phoenix won, and what to expect in the decisive Indiana-Las Vegas game.
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Final: Phoenix 86, Minnesota 81
What the win means for Phoenix
The jubilation of winning the series and advancing to the franchise’s first WNBA Finals in four years also comes with a sigh of relief. Playing against the injury-laden Lynx, the Mercury got off to a slow start, missing their first six field goal attempts, giving Minnesota a sign of life it didn’t appear to have after the end of Friday’s game. But another fourth quarter comeback saved Phoenix from a return trip to Minnesota and a deciding Game 5.
Down by 14 in the first half and 13 entering the fourth quarter, Phoenix dominated the fourth quarter for a third consecutive game. Behind five 3-pointers, including two crucial deep shots from DeWanna Bonner, the Mercury outscored Minnesota 31-13 in the final 10 minutes.
It was the Mercury’s second 14-point comeback in the series. Alyssa Thomas was big in the fourth, scoring 10 of her 23 points. She also assisted on a Sami Whitcomb 3-pointer that brought Phoenix within 70-69 with 4:47 to play, and Bonner’s second 3 that pushed the lead to 77-73 with 2:02 remaining.
Reaching the Finals is a testament to the job general manager Nick U’Ren did in the offseason. He completely revamped the roster, keeping only Kahleah Copper and Natasha Mack, while bringing in Thomas and Satou Sabally. The chemistry came together in the biggest moments of the biggest games of the season.
0:23
Alyssa Thomas seals it with late jumper for Mercury
Alyssa Thomas knocks down the clutch shot to make it 81-76 vs. Lynx.
What the loss means for Minnesota
A season with only one mission — to win a championship — ends early. To not only fall short of that goal but see the season end one round earlier than last year is going to be difficult for the franchise to live with all offseason. That the Lynx played so well for 30 minutes in a game in which they didn’t have their star player or coach will be little consolation. Minnesota had complete control of this series until the fourth quarter of Game 2 on Tuesday; five days later its season is over.
All the disappointment will overshadow a brilliant performance by Kayla McBride, who scored a playoff career-high 31 points and tied a WNBA postseason record with six 3-pointers in the second half. Jessica Shepard, who played just eight minutes in Game 3, had 14 points and 7 rebounds in 36 minutes in place of Collier, giving the Lynx exactly what they needed to combat what had been a Mercury advantage on the inside for most of the series.
How do the Mercury prepare for the Finals?
Phoenix now has five days off before the start of the best-of-seven championship round and still won’t know its opponent until the Fever and Aces decide their Game 5 on Tuesday. This week, the Mercury will certainly take a look at how they’re starting games. Phoenix didn’t make a field goal for the first 4:47 on Sunday and scored just 14 first-quarter points. The Mercury trailed after the first quarter in three of the four games in the series. It’s nice to be the comeback kids and to have confidence late in games, but putting themselves in those situations is precarious. — Charlie Creme
Final: Indiana 90, Las Vegas 83
1:09
Fever take down Aces in Game 4 to even series
Aliyah Boston and Kelsey Mitchell combine for 49 points to boost the Fever to a win in Game 4 over the Aces.
What the win means for Indiana
A winner-take-all Game 5 on Tuesday in Las Vegas. Given all the injuries the Fever have dealt with this season, they’ll undoubtedly take it. And there’s no reason for Indiana not to believe in a possible win. The Fever already won at Michelob Ultra Arena in Game 1 and knocked off the Atlanta Dream in an identical situation in the first round.
Beyond those general factors, Indiana found something by playing through Aliyah Boston in Game 4. Having made just two free throws in the first three games of the series while scoring 28 total points, Boston smashed that total by going 10-for-13 from the line Sunday en route to 24 points — not to mention 15 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks. At age 23, Boston is the youngest player in WNBA history with at least 20 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists in a playoff game according to ESPN Research.
What the loss means for Las Vegas
The Aces are also headed to their second deciding game in as many series, having survived an upset bid when the Seattle Storm missed at the buzzer in Game 3 of the opening round.
Although Vegas is a win away from hosting the WNBA Finals, this hasn’t been the kind of dominant playoff run we expected based on the Aces’ 16-game winning streak to end the regular season, which they stretched to 17 by winning their opening game against Seattle. Since then, Las Vegas has gone 3-3. If the Aces want to be favored against Phoenix in the Finals, they’ll need to show us something in Game 3.
Where else can the Aces find offense?
After A’ja Wilson struggled from the field in Las Vegas’ Game 3 win, she had no such trouble in scoring 31 points on 14-of-24 shooting on Sunday. The Aces’ backcourt of Chelsea Gray and Jackie Young also excelled with a combined 30 points and 18 assists, making five 3-pointers. But the three leading scorers combined for nearly three-quarters of Las Vegas’ 83 points.
The Aces’ bench totaled 11 points on 4-of-14 shooting, a problem given starter Kierstan Bell logged just six minutes. They’ve only had fewer points in one game so far this postseason — Game 3 against Seattle. — Kevin Pelton
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Naumov’s parents died last January in the plane crash over the Potomac River. “We did it,” he said after securing his place on the U.S. team in Milan.
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CHICAGO — Matt LaFleur could not have made it much clearer: He wants to remain the Green Bay Packers coach.
But after blowing an 18-point lead in Saturday night’s NFC wild-card playoff loss to the Chicago Bears, LaFleur declined to say whether he expected to return next season for an eighth year.
“With all due respect to your question, now’s not the time for that,” LaFleur said shortly after the Packers’ 31-27 loss. “I’m just hurting for these guys. I can only think about what just happened, and there will be time for that.”
LaFleur and general manager Brian Gutekunst each have one more year left on their contracts. First-year team president Ed Policy said before this season that he would prefer not to have a coach or general manager go into a so-called lame-duck year.
That ramped up the pressure this season, which began with a 9-3-1 record only to see the Packers lose five straight games to end the season, although in one of those games — the regular-season finale — they rested most of their starters.
LaFleur has a 76-40-1 regular-season record and has led the Packers to the playoffs in six of his seven seasons, but Green Bay has not reached a Super Bowl during his tenure and has not been to a conference championship game since the 2020 season, the second of back-to-back appearances in LaFleur’s first two years.
Three times after Saturday’s loss, LaFleur was asked about his job security, and each time he said it wasn’t the time to discuss it.
However, he explained what the Packers’ job means to him.
“It means everything to me,” LaFleur said. “This is the greatest organization in the world, in my opinion. It’s very humbling. I’m certainly disappointed right now, disappointed mostly for — well, not mostly — I’m disappointed for everybody that’s associated with the Green Bay Packers. I’m disappointed for our locker room. I’m disappointed for our fans. I’m disappointed for our leadership, all our employees, everybody involved with the Green Bay Packers right now.”
A playoff loss like this could have long-term implications, and several players acknowledged that possibility.
“I’m not going to jump to any conclusions or anything,” Packers quarterback Jordan Love said. “We’ll see what happens going forward. That’s the case for every end of the season, and going into the offseason, that’s always the case. We’ll see if anything comes forward, if anything. So, we’ll see.”
Love threw his support behind the only head coach he has had in the NFL.
“I definitely think Matt should be the head coach,” Love said. “I’ve got a lot of love for Matt, and I think he does a good job. And that’s it.”
Second-year safety Evan Williams concurred.
“He’s our leader,” Williams said. “I’ll tell you that much. We have full faith in him, in all of his decisions. I can’t speak on any extension or anything that’s in his future. I know business is business, but he’s been my only head coach and really the only one that I see needing moving forward. Feel like he’s done a great job of putting us in positions to win and in scenarios like today, we’ve just got to find a way to finish.”
Saturday’s loss was rife with mistakes and miscues. Love and the offense, of which LaFleur is the playcaller, managed only six points after scoring touchdowns on the first three drives of the game to take a 21-3 lead into halftime.
LaFleur said Love “played his ass off” but added that they “obviously didn’t do enough around him.”
It was the second time this season that the Packers blew a lead against the Bears. Their overtime loss at Soldier Field in Week 16 looked much the same as this one. That one cost the Packers the NFC North. This one cost them their season.
“We’ve just got to do a better job of keeping our composure as a football team and going out there and doing the fundamental things that we practice all the time,” LaFleur said. “I think when you get into these types of big games, when you don’t execute simple fundamentals, it comes back to bite you. That’s exactly what happened.”
Their skid to finish the season coincided with defensive end Micah Parsons‘ season-ending knee injury. The Packers did not win a game after Parsons got hurt, and their defense suffered. Green Bay allowed just 19.0 points per game and 287.2 yards per game in its first 13 games. Those numbers spiked to 28.8 points per game and 402.6 yards per game in its last four.
The Packers gave up 25 points in the fourth quarter, only the third time in NFL history that a team has allowed that many in the fourth quarter of a playoff game.
“When you have a team on the ropes, it’s just finishing them,” Packers linebacker Isaiah McDuffie said. “It’s as simple as that.”
Special teams, which have cost the Packers in the postseason before, cost them again when kicker Brandon McManus missed an extra point attempt and a field goal try in the fourth quarter. McManus called it the “biggest disappointment in my career. Just an embarrassment of a performance.”
After last year’s playoff exit, Gutekunst said it was time the Packers got back to competing for championships, but after a second straight first-round loss, the Packers got no closer.
“It’s going to take a lot of work, a lot of work,” LaFleur said. “And we’re not where we want to be. I know we fought through a lot of adversity this year. Unfortunately, we didn’t do enough to overcome that adversity. That’s all of us collectively. We’ve got to do more. We’ve got to be better because it’s never an excuse. I know we lost some key players, but you’ve got to find a way to overcome that because I think we do have a lot of talent on our team. It’s just, it’s disappointing.”
The Caps are seeking consistency. They’ll try to find it in Nashville.
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