Tuesday’s Game 2 of the First Round of the playoffs between the Indiana Fever and the Las Vegas Aces was nothing less than a championship game. With the crowd riled up every minute and two of the best teams in the league battling it out, one trying to move ahead in the postseason while the other tried to survive a do-or-die situation, this was a game where every possession mattered. The Fever played highly physical basketball throughout those 40 minutes, and the incident that set the tone came in the first 10 minutes, when Myisha Hines-Allen poked the Aces’ bear in A’ja Wilson. And while Hines-Allen’s actions didn’t sit right with many, former college player Rachel DeMita believes she brought the energy Indiana needed.

“I do have to shout out Myisha Hines-Allen because there was a moment in this game when she went out and she challenged A’ja (Wilson),” DeMita said, as per a clip posted by Courtside Club on X. “And what I said going into this game is I was like, I don’t think that the Fever hate the Aces enough because the Aces hate the Indiana Fever. They hate them. They despise them. And you can tell they want nothing else than to beat this team.

“If there’s one team that they circle and they want to beat, it’s the Indiana Fever. The Fever have to match that energy. Okay? You can’t have a team that wants to defeat you more than you want to defeat them. You have to take it personally. And Myisha Hines-Allen, that is her job.

“Myisha Hines-Allen is a dog on this team, and the Fever have not proven that they have that many. You have players who are your skill, but you have Kelsey (Mitchell) and Caitlin (Clark). They don’t need to be going out there challenging and getting physical with other players on the team. That is something that Myisha Hines-Allen does. She doesn’t need to play 25 minutes a game, but she came out and set the tone. And from that, I feel like everything turned.”

As the defending champions, A’ja Wilson & Co. knew that one of the teams threatening to dethrone them was the Fever, who led the league throughout the 2026 regular season with the highest-scoring offense. Indiana averaged 96.0 points per game, which is why Las Vegas has brought its best against Indiana all season. That was evident in Game 1, when Las Vegas came out firing on all cylinders and cruised to a 102-85 win.

But with the Fever backed into a corner and the Aces threatening to send them home, Indiana matched that intensity in Game 2 and came away with a 99-89 win. And the first sign that the Fever weren’t going to back down came in the opening quarter itself.

With less than three minutes remaining in the first, the Aces were leading 15-13 when Hines-Allen, who was on Wilson duty, was called for a personal foul on the Aces star. The play developed as Jackie Young looked for a way to rush toward the Fever basket with Caitlin Clark defending her. To Young’s left was Wilson, who was being guarded by Hines-Allen.

A’ja Wilson tried to rush toward her teammate to set up a screen, but her path was intercepted by Hines-Allen as she tried to stop the Aces star. Wilson also didn’t back down, which prompted the official to call a personal foul on Hines-Allen for pushing. The frustrated Fever forward then shoved Wilson out of her way as she argued the call with the referee, which led to a brief exchange between the two before other Aces players stepped in to separate them.

The Fever fed off that confrontation, as Clark immediately started to clap as she walked towards the home crowd, while Sophie Cunningham also urged the Gainbridge faithful to get even louder.

Hines-Allen made life difficult for Wilson throughout the night. She limited one of the WNBA’s top scorers to just 10 points by halftime on 3-of-8 shooting from the field, including 0-of-1 from three, while Wilson also committed three turnovers.

A’ja Wilson eventually finished the night with 22 points, but it was far from an efficient game for her. The 30-year-old shot just 5-of-11 from the field, remained scoreless from beyond the arc, and finished with four turnovers.

The Fever forward, meanwhile, didn’t light up the stat sheet, recording 2 points, 5 rebounds, 1 assist, and 1 steal in 13 minutes. But with Caitlin Clark and Kelsey Mitchell handling the scoring front, that was never her role. Her goal was to force Wilson into uncomfortable situations, and she did exactly that.

Now, with the series tied 1-1, the Fever and the Aces will play their decider in less than 24 hours. This time, however, the game will be held in Las Vegas, where the Aces will have home-court advantage. Soon enough, we will find out which team gets to keep its playoff run alive and which one will have to go home.