The Indiana Fever cleared many seemingly insurmountable hurdles this season on their way to the WNBA playoffs, but Thursday’s felt like the tallest yet. Not only were they matched up against the No. 2 seed Atlanta Dream, they were tasked with facing them on the road in a do-or-die Game 3.
But after being counted out time and time again, the Fever pulled off their most stunning win yet, using a layup from Aliyah Boston with 7.4 seconds left and a pair of late stops to upset the Dream and move onto the semi-finals of the WNBA playoffs.
“This group has been through every situation imaginable,” head coach Stephanie White said. “We knew that we just had to keep it tight. We knew we had to get stops and I felt like for a long period of time we were getting stops and then not getting scores. It just takes a couple of breaks to go your way.”
The Fever got some key breaks in the final minute. First, Lexie Hull turned a possession that looked doomed to fail into a layup just before the shot clock buzzer with 43.1 seconds left, pulling the Fever to within a point.
After a Rhyne Howard missed 3-pointer, the Fever got perhaps their biggest break of the season. After a Kelsey Mitchell pass intended for Boston was batted away, Mitchell, who finished with a game-high 24 points, chased down the loose ball.
With both teams scrambling, Odyssey Sims found Boston, who had a double-double of 14 points and 12 rebounds, wide open under the basket for a layup to take the lead, 86-85.
“I think on the offensive end, [my mindset] was, ‘Do I call timeout? Do I call time out? Do I call time out?’ But we had them in rotation,” White said of the game-winning basket. “We had them scrambling and the hustle play from [Mitchell] to be able to keep the ball alive, and then [Sims] to be able to see [Boston] loose was huge and then the finish.”
Lexie Hull would steal the ensuing inbound from the Dream, setting up Sims to split a pair of free throws. Atlanta had one last chance with 1.2 seconds left, but Bri Jones’ desperate 3-point attempt missed, ending the game.
“I’m just speechless right now, just how we fought through this whole game,” Natasha Howard said. “They went on their runs, we went on our run, but at the end of the day, it was our defense that kept us in the game.”
Game 3 was a fittingly physical conclusion to a grueling series between the two sides. Even given the win-or-go-home setting, it was a contest featuring plenty of hard fouls and scuffles.
It was one of those scuffles, in fact, that White noted postgame was the turning point. Midway through the third quarter, Jones and Boston got tangled at the free throw line before the latter tossed the former to the ground.
Officially, the result was a personal foul on Jones and a technical foul on Boston. But the play represented a lot more to the head coach.
“I felt like the turning point for us was when [Aliyah Boston] got the tech, honestly,” White said. “There was physicality throughout the course of the game and, at that point, that was a composure check and it was an opportunity right then for us to turn the tide and our group responded.”
While Atlanta kept the lead after that sequence for the remainder of the third quarter and most of the fourth, the Fever never let the game get away. And once the pace slowed down in the fourth, they kept chipping away.
Bri Turner, one of the unsung heroes of the final stretch of the regular season and into the playoffs for the Fever, tipped home a missed layup to tie the game with 3:21 remaining. Atlanta immediately responded with the next five points, but after Howard’s three with 2:32 remaining, they would not score again.
“I said before the game started it was going to be a gut-check type of game,” Mitchell said. “I think you just have to dig deep. I think you have to really give yourself in ways that you least expect. I know I did from a leadership standpoint and just kind of seeing and reading the game.
“It was big for us because we could have easily given up…and we didn’t. I wouldn’t play with any other group. It’s a special group.”
In a season full of improbable moments and milestones, knocking off the Dream, who entered the postseason ranked No. 2 in offensive rating, defensive rating and net rating, on the road is the type of win that will define the season for years to come.
It can’t be overstated how impressive a win this is. Winning a playoff game is hard. Winning a playoff road game is even tougher. Winning a series with a round win is as difficult a challenge as it comes.
And that’s even under normal circumstances. This Fever season has been anything but normal. Their playoff rotation features three players who were not on the team at the All-Star break. Yet all three — Sims, Aerial Powers and Shey Peddy — made big plays throughout the series and in Game 3, specifically.
It’s a testament to the culture the Fever have built this season, largely on the fly, and how much that powered them on Thursday.
“This group is just really special,” White said. “We say it pretty much ad nauseam, but it’s the resilience, the flexibility, the welcome and inclusive nature of this team, their selflessness to pull for the we over the me, the ability to let each teammate be who they are and shine at their best and to lift them up, in those moments, that’s good for 12 to 15 points. It is.
“And you couple that with the resilience, the toughness, the grit, the fight, the scrappiness and you always give yourself a chance. I love riding with these guys. I love coaching them and I’m just so incredibly proud of them.”