Aces return from playoff simulation to postseason stakes against Sun

The Aces’ two-game series against the Indiana Fever in Indianapolis had everything: WNBA history, highlight plays and enough competitive energy for multiple technical fouls.

But aside from Friday’s win completing the Aces’ regular-season four-game sweep of the young team, it gave the league’s back-to-back defending champions a necessary postseason simulation.

With three games remaining in the regular season, it’s undetermined what seed the Aces will land for the playoffs. Sitting at the No. 4 spot, the Aces could maintain their position, advance to third or fall to fifth.

It would take three Aces wins and three Connecticut Sun losses for the Aces to overtake the third seed, and the Aces (24-13) have an opportunity to finish a three-game sweep of the Sun (27-10) at 3 p.m. Sunday at Michelob Ultra Arena.

The most likely playoff outcome for the Aces is fourth or fifth and a first-round matchup against the Seattle Storm, with home advantage going to the higher seed.

But consecutive games against the same team in an unfriendly environment is a scenario the Aces can expect to face at least once this season. According to point guard Chelsea Gray, the exercise offered by the Fever on Wednesday and Friday could pay dividends.

‘Little tweaks’

The 2023 Finals MVP called the experience in Indiana “huge,” simply for the fact that it allowed the Aces to practice in a way that goes beyond game action. Gray listed mental recovery, physical treatment routines and adjustments for Game 2 from watching Game 1 film as muscles the Aces were able to flex against the Fever.

“There’s little tweaks that can make you win a series. … And it starts off the court, it starts pregame, it starts with a conversation,” Gray said Friday. “So anytime you have an opportunity to kind of do that in the midst of a season, it’s really, really important.”

The Aces are coming off two chippy games against the Fever, both of which were followed by tearful press conferences.

You can expect similarly heightened emotions in the postseason, but Aces guard Kelsey Plum didn’t want to ruminate too much on the recent wins or look that far ahead.

“To be honest, we gotta focus on what’s in front of us, taking it a game at a time,” Plum said Friday. “Whenever we get to the playoffs, we’ll lock in then. But to me, my focus is on the next game. And that’s, that’s how it’s going to stay.”

Entering Sunday’s game, the Aces have coach Becky Hammon’s optimism, which couldn’t be said during the first two months of the season.

Much has been made about the Aces not consistently looking like themselves this season, and it was so bad early that Hammon said she didn’t like the Aces’ lack of “hunger” and defensive prowess from Day 1 of training camp.

Now, the Aces have won six of their past seven games and held every opponent within that stretch under 80 points. Their seven-game average of allowing 73.3 points per game is the lowest in the league over that span.

“We’re starting to see the resiliency of a championship team,” Hammon said after Friday’s win. “Because (the Fever) threw a couple really good punches at us, we were able to take it, absorb it, and still maintain the lead, maintain composure, with the understanding that they have unbelievable offensive players.”

Heating up on road

Things seemed to change after the Aces stumbled out of the Olympic break, winning one of their first three games and pushing star forward A’ja Wilson to the point of wearing nothing but white T-shirts to games ever since.

After a win over the Chicago Sky on Sept. 3, the Aces expressed a “different energy” within the team, and they showcased it in road wins over the Sun on Sept. 6 and this week against the Fever.

The consecutive wins ended what Hammon described Friday as the Aces’ “hardest road trip of the season.” The Aces went 3-1 in the stint of away games, only taking a 75-71 loss to the New York Liberty when MVP favorite Wilson missed her first game since 2019.

After breaking the league’s record for points in a season Wednesday, Wilson is only 29 points away from becoming the first player in WNBA history to score 1,000 in a single campaign.

Contact Callie Lawson-Freeman at clawsonfreeman@reviewjournal.com. Follow @CallieJLaw on X.