‘We have good players’: Aces thwart comeback, complete sweep of Fever
Whenever the Aces needed a clutch bucket or assist in Friday’s 78-74 victory over the Indiana Fever, Chelsea Gray made it happen.
It was the second win at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis in three days for the Aces (24-13), completing a regular-season sweep of four games with the Fever (19-19) this season.
In Aces coach Becky Hammon’s words, Gray “controlled the game.” The point guard scored 21 points on 7-of-11 shooting with six assists for her second 20-point game of the season.
Kelsey Plum added 18 points, and A’ja Wilson recorded another double-double with 15 points and 17 rebounds.
Gray credited Plum for encouraging her to attack at the perimeter once she started getting “in a flow” in the paint. The all-around game was important for Gray, who said she had to be patient with her adjustment period after she missed the first 12 games of the season with a lower left leg injury.
“Some of those hard times where I got frustrated, I just trusted the process,” Gray said. “I know I put the work in. It’s never a question on that side of it, so I gotta kind of surrender myself to the result. And that’s what I’ve been doing, and it paid off tonight.”
Kelsey Mitchell had 20 points for Indiana, which rallied from a 13-point deficit to tie the game at 60 early in the fourth quarter. Rookie Caitlin Clark finished with 18 after not scoring until the third quarter. She added nine assists to break the WNBA single-season record for assists with 321, surpassing the 316 last season by Alyssa Thomas of the Connecticut Sun.
Clark also got her sixth technical foul of the season, and will be suspended for a game if she receives another before the postseason begins.
The Aces next return home to face the Connecticut Sun at 3 p.m. Sunday at Michelob Ultra Arena.
Here are three takeaways from the Aces’ sixth win in seven games:
1. ‘We have good players’
After the Aces came out of the first quarter with a 19-13 lead, the Fever finished a 9-0 run to take a 20-19 lead. Hammon called a timeout, and the Aces answered with 10 uninterrupted points of their own.
The Aces led 43-35 at halftime. During a live broadcast interview during the break, Plum was asked, “It seemed that every time the Fever got back into the game, your team found a response. How?”
After a brief pause, Plum answered, “We have good players?”
While she would go on to elaborate briefly during the live interview, she revisited the answer postgame. “No offense, but like, I would hope so,” she said of the Aces’ ability to compete.
“Basketball is a game of runs, so you would expect us to come back,” Gray added.
It was Gray who drove to the basket and regained the lead for the Aces when the Fever tied the game, and she made the last three free throws to seal the win.
Gray added flair to her impact in vintage fashion, connecting on a behind-the-back dime that led to a three-point play for Jackie Young early in the third quarter.
2. Hammon emotional
Friday marked the second emotional postgame press conference from the Aces in Indianapolis after Wilson and Alysha Clark were in tears Wednesday. Hammon was the most recent culprit, wiping her eyes not because the Aces held the Fever to 75 points or less in consecutive games, but because of her “care” for her players.
Hammon was asked about Friday being the third anniversary of her No. 25 jersey being retired by the Aces, who were called the San Antonio Silver Stars when she played for them for the last eight seasons of her 16-year WNBA career.
She was still an assistant coach with the San Antonio Spurs when she was honored, and she said that the memory reminded her she made the right decision to move to coaching.
“The players are my why,” Hammon said. “I’m super passionate about people I coach. I’m super invested, I’m super real, I’m super raw, vulnerable. That’s just, that’s just how, how I’m wired. I can’t not care about you if I’m leading you, because that’s my style.”
It’s the second time in three days that Hammon has spoken about her leadership style without necessarily being asked about it.
3. Season ticket sellout
The Aces are sold out of 2025 season ticket memberships, and there’s already a waitlist for 2026.
They’re the first team in WNBA history to sell out of season tickets before the conclusion of the previous year’s regular-season slate, the Aces said in a release Friday.
The back-to-back WNBA champions are also now the only team in league history to sell out of season tickets in consecutive seasons. This comes after no other WNBA organization had ever sold out of season ticket memberships before the Aces did in March.
Contact Callie Lawson-Freeman at clawsonfreeman@reviewjournal.com. Follow @CallieJLaw on X.