Even after the Las Vegas Aces won the Semi-Finals series, the squad faced criticism for barely managing to do so. The fact that a Fever squad that had stars like Caitlin Clark and Sophie Cunningham out due to injury issues took the then 2x champions to a Game 5 didn’t speak well for A’ja Wilson and co. Weeks after the series ended, Becky Hammon revealed her feelings about the same.

The Las Vegas Aces head coach was recently interviewed by ‘The Ballers Magazine’. During the same, she brought up the series against the Fever by saying, “Um, it didn’t feel great leaving the arena, you know, just having barely beat Indiana. But like, when you go back and watch those games, like I didn’t feel like it was so much of us playing bad as they played great. Like, Indiana played great. They had great individual performances. Um, they…. I think they’re coached great, you know. So, like don’t sit there and be like, ‘Oh, you guys are barely beat.’ No, that was a very good team, very resilient team.”

The Indiana Fever saw their odds reduce after losing both Catilin Clark and Sophie Cunningham due to injuries. In fact, before the 2025 WNBA postseason got underway, all 9 members of ESPN’s staff, who were asked to predict their choice of teams to support, voted for the Atlanta Dream to dominate over the Indiana Fever.

8 of them voted that Brittney Griner and co would sweep the Fever, while one of them voted that the series would go till Game 3. Well, the Indiana Fever dominated 2-1 in that series.

A major reason behind the Fever not losing their prowess level was that the absence of their star players compelled Kelsey Mitchell and the others to step up and be more efficient on the offensive front. Mitchell personally went on to average 22.3 points, 1.5 rebounds, and 3.0 assists in 8 postseason games. On the shooting front, she recorded 7.4-17.3 (42.8%) field goals, 2.6-6.1 (42.9%) 3-pointers, and 4.9-5.6 (86.7%) free throws.

It was a major jump from her performance in the regular season, which was already impressive since Kelsey Mitchell led the league with 111 successful 3-pointers during the regular season, ranked 2nd in scoring (890 total points), and 3rd in points per game.

If things had gone well during Game 5 of the Aces-Fever series, then Kelsey Mitchell could have perhaps taken the team to the Finals. However, the star had to leave halfway through the 3rd quarter after sustaining an injury. What was initially presumed to be a left leg injury later turned out to be lower-body cramping. The Fever head coach, Stephanie White, found it hard to control her tears when giving the health update on her player after the game.

The coach attempted to keep the spirits high after Kelsey Mitchell departed by saying, “Again, we’ve been in this position before, right? We’ve got to play for our teammate. We got to fight for out teammate. Tooth and nail. Ain’t nobody in a better position to do this than us. Ain’t nobody. But we got to stay locked in. We’ve got to stay locked in in everything that we do.” This allowed the Fever squad to even take the game to overtime! However, not further than that, and the Aces won Game 5.

Even though the Indiana Fever did not make it to the Finals, they did teach everyone a lesson, which was not to underestimate them. Furthermore, Becky Hammon cannot be solely blamed for not taking the Fever as seriously as she should have. After all, she wasn’t the only one.

Three ESPN Commentators Got Trolled For Giving the Indiana Fever No Chance Against the Aces

ESPN has often made some bad predictions and has been trolled over them. Phoenix Mercury’s Satou Sabally even openly stated after a win against the Minnesota Lynx that “We started out the season, I think, ESPN, all of them, they ranked us really low.” In light of this, you would think that the hosts would be more careful going forward, right?

ESPN’s Carolyn Peck, Andraya Carter, and former WNBA player Chiney Ogwumike hosted a segment of ‘WNBA Countdown’ before Game 4 between the Las Vegas Aces and the Indiana Fever. During the conversation, Peck asked her co-hosts to quickly decide between the Aces or the Fever to win Game 4.

Peck made it clear that the Indiana Fever haven’t lost consecutive games at home in the postseason. Furthermore, one of her researchers told her that when Stephanie White “wears her red leather jacket…. they are undefeated”.

Well, those factors didn’t matter to the others. Chiney Ogwumike went with the Aces, and so did Andraya Carter. Lo and behold, the Indiana Fever won by a 7-point margin, or by a score of 90-83. The Fever remained on top for the majority of the game, with the trio of Aliyah Boston, Kelsey Mitchell, and Odyssey Sims keeping the momentum going.

Netizens did not waste any time in becoming trolls. One of them wrote, “The terrible triplets. Fire them.” Another individual wrote, “Professional wrong people, but espn will still put them on air every week”.

Going into the 2026 season, whether the Indiana Fever squad will be feared even if stars like Caitlin Clark aren’t present is something that remains to be seen.