A’ja Wilson and the Las Vegas Aces eliminated the Indiana Fever in the first round Thursday, but the series left scars off the court. Wilson and Fever forward Myisha Hines-Allen gave the series plenty of heated moments. But that tension has now spilled over off the court. After Wilson’s mother decided to enter the conversation and flaunt a “Love Beats Hate” sign during Game 3, Hines-Allen does not seem pleased with the implocations of the sign.

According to an X post by Jon Root, the 31-year-old Fever forward recently took to her Instagram Stories to call out what she saw as a double standard, quoting Wilson’s mom’s sign directly.

“Love beats hate… 🤫🩷,” Hines-Allen posted.

She followed it up with another story post that read:

“But it’s only a problem when they do it. But when my down for the brown does it 🤫 Confused.”

While Hines-Allen’s post may carry a cryptic message, Wilson’s mother’s sign was clear. Wilson’s mother, Eva Wilson, displayed the sign toward the crowd following the Aces’ first-round victory. The clip went viral on social media, garnering almost a million views in a day on X. It came just two days after a heated moment involving her daughter during Game 2 of the series against the Fever.

In Game 2, with just over four minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, A’ja Wilson was involved in a physical sequence with Sophie Cunningham. The two became tangled up while Wilson was trying to fight through a screen, sending Cunningham to the floor and drawing a foul.

After the whistle, Wilson continued down the lane. But she suddenly turned her attention toward a fan behind the basket, and before anyone knew it, the Aces star started exchanging words with the fan in the stands, prompting her teammates and officials to step in and pull her away.

Wilson was ultimately assessed a technical foul, while the fan was briefly removed from his seat before being allowed back into the arena.

“If I see a man come at me, taking steps towards me and pointing at me, I don’t give a damn what you said, I don’t give a damn how you said it, the tone; that is unacceptable,” A’ja Wilson said during the post-game interview addressing the incident. “You don’t step towards me. You never should step and point at me. I’m not for that s*** at all.”

But the tension wasn’t limited to Wilson’s exchange with the fan, either. Earlier in the same game, Hines-Allen and Wilson had already been involved in a heated moment of their own.

With less than three minutes remaining in the first quarter and Las Vegas leading 15-13, Hines-Allen was called for a personal foul on Wilson. After the whistle, the Fever forward pushed Wilson away from her, prompting a brief exchange between the two before other Aces players stepped in to separate them.

Moments like that were hardly out of place in a matchup that has developed plenty of bite. The Aces and Fever have built a rivalry that has produced no shortage of physicality and emotion, and Game 2 was another example of that. But in the end, A’ja Wilson led her team to another win in Game 3 to close out the series 2-1, as she finished with a team-high 36 points on 11-of-18 shooting while going 12-of-15 from the free-throw line.

Yet for the 30-year-old, the game carried more weight than what showed up on the stat sheet. The events surrounding her altercation with the fan had clearly taken an emotional toll on Wilson, so after the game on Thursday, the four-time MVP opened up with reporters in a way that went far beyond the usual postgame comments.

“I have my moments because I’m human,” she said. “But after a while, I understood I didn’t want that to be a distraction to myself and my team, and I knew what we had to do coming into tonight. So I put it behind me. I prayed a lot. I cried a lot.”

So with the Aces now moving on to the semifinals and the Fever heading into the offseason, the rivalry has already left fans with plenty to talk about. But with Eva Wilson’s “Love Beats Hate” message now drawing a seemingly pointed response from Hines-Allen, the drama may not end soon.