The Las Vegas Aces had been pushed back by the Indiana Fever in Game 2, but when it came down to the final game, the defending champions found what they needed from their veterans, establishing a 12-point lead at one point. A’ja Wilson and Co. have moved on to the WNBA semifinals, and the entire basketball world has taken note.

Wilson and teammate Chelsea Gray, who have been the base of the Aces championship-winning squads, combined for 59 points in the winner-takes-all Game 3 to send the Fever home with a 94-83 win. One of the people who took note of the win was WNBA legend Candace Parker, who made a bold prediction about the Las Vegas Aces, who now move into the longer semifinals series.

“Best of 3 scenario favored everyone else…. Luck up and win 2,” she wrote on X. “But now….Who are the Aces losing to in a best of 5 or 7?”

Parker, who is a seven-time WNBA All-Star and has won three WNBA championships, makes a legitimate point. The WNBA’s first-round best-of-three format gives teams relatively short paths to upsets. The Aces could very well have lost this series if their poor shooting during Game 2 was replicated, when they fell 99-89 to the Fever.

The semifinals are a different ballgame altogether. A best-of-five series skews towards teams with experience, and with the Las Vegas Aces being the most proven playoff performers in the league, Parker might not be wrong in predicting them to win over anyone else.

Another reaction to their win came from the NBA, which posted a simple celebratory message to commemorate them making it past the Fever.

“THE ACES ARE SEMIFINALS-BOUND!” their X post read.

Another notable reaction came from sports analyst Skip Bayless, who highlighted Wilson and Gray for their outstanding performance.

“The truth was for the Fever, A’ja Wilson and Chelsea Gray were just too much, just wanted it more, just made too many veteran championship shots,” he wrote on X.

That assessment showed up in the box score. After a decent scoring performance during Game 2 (Wilson 22 PTS, Gray 10 PTS), A’ja Wilson turned the heat up with a 36-point, 10-rebound double-double, hitting 11 of her 18 shots and making 12-of-15 free throws. Meanwhile, Gray finished with 23 points, adding four rebounds and five assists.

Meanwhile, the Fever’s top two struggled hard. After logging a 27-point, 15-assist performance in Game 2, Caitlin Clark came back down to earth, starting with 11 points in the first quarter but finishing with 18 points on 6-for-18 shooting, while logging five fouls and six turnovers. Kelsey Mitchell finished with Kelsey Mitchell finished with 23 points on 23 shots, making just seven of them.

What made the win stand out even more was who Vegas was missing. Just before the game, forward Stephanie Talbot was ruled out of the game due to a leg injury, forcing the team to insert Jewell Loyd into the starting lineup. Talbot was particularly important for the Aces, starting all but one regular-season game and being the primary defensive matchup for Clark, making her uncomfortable with her length.

The game also saw major tension between the two sides, with three total technical fouls called during the game. The first two were called on Clark and Brianna Turner during the first quarter, when the Fever guard pushed the Aces forward when the latter tried to enter an Indiana huddle.

Then, during the second quarter, the Fever head coach Stephanie White was called for a technical foul when she argued with referees about Lexie Hull being called for a foul.

The Fever tried their best to take the lead in the fourth, cutting the gap to two points twice in the period to make it close, but couldn’t make shots when it mattered.

Now, the Las Vegas Aces move on to the semifinals for the seventh consecutive season and are set to face the team that wins Game 3 between the Dallas Wings and the Golden State Valkyries. Only time will tell if they can repeat as champions. The other semifinals will be between the New York Liberty (who defeated the Minnesota Lynx) and the Atlanta Dream (who defeated the Washington Mystics).