Kelsey Mitchell, Stephanie White

By Madie Chandler | FeverBasketball.com

There’s a small explosion of emotion throughout an arena when a team steps back from the ledge of elimination.

In Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Sunday, that burst was a rallying cry, and it began to rumble in the first quarter. That rumble grew in the second, when the Fever outscored the Aces 23-17, and Indianapolis rose to its feet in the third as the Fever closed in on a critical win.

They played to save their season on Sunday – down 1-2 in a best-of-five series with the Las Vegas Aces, the Fever had to find another level of fight.

“It’s desperation,” coach Stephanie White said when discussing the urgency needed from her team in Game 4. “And it’s not a reckless desperation, it’s just a desperation in terms of the urgency that you have to play with…Our players understand what we have to do. We have to leave it all out on the floor.”

Aliyah Boston recorded 24 points, 14 rebounds, and five assists while guarding league MVP A’ja Wilson on the other end of the floor. Boston gathered two steals and two blocks down there, helping Indiana to a marginal advantage in the paint as they scored 42 paint points to Vegas’ 38. It was the best performance of Boston’s postseason, nearly doubling her scoring average in the playoffs.

“We know that you’re going to go through ebbs and flows in terms of shots falling and not falling, and we’ve got to compete to the standard no matter what,” White said. “We can’t let that affect everything else. And I just think for us, it’s a mentality that we’re trying to really embrace and make sure that we can continue to put our best foot forward.”

Kelsey Mitchell’s 21 points in Friday’s contest came on 26 field goal attempts, leaving her feeling frustrated with her shot, eager to flush the result. She did just that on Sunday as she notched a team-high 25 points on 9-for-20 shooting.

It was Mitchell who slammed the door on the Aces late-game attempts to send the Fever home – she knocked down a floater through a foul to put the Fever up seven with 61 seconds remaining.

And Odyssey Sims – a hardship contract addition late into the season – came through for Indiana down the stretch by scoring nine fourth quarter points. Sims finished the game with 18 points overall, and a game-high +17.

“I’m thankful, and I’m blessed to be a part of this group,” Sims said. “This group is amazing, from the coaching staff, to the top, all the way to the bottom. My teammates are amazing, everyone pours into each other, it’s always positivity, so I’m happy.”

The Fever’s navigation of adversity throughout the season is already a theme of the franchise – the locker room pulled together and forged bonds through unfortunate injury luck that unearthed a gritty, no-quit, play-style reflective of Indiana’s attitude. Their mentality doesn’t change now that they’re just one win away from the WNBA Finals.

“We over me,” Boston said. “That’s been our identity the entire season. We all we got, we all we need. And we’ve stuck with it. I think the beauty of this squad, whether you’re hurt or you’re not, everything that you do is for the betterment of this team.”

The Fever take a 3-0 record in elimination games back to Las Vegas for a decisive Game 5 of the WNBA semifinals. On Sunday, they played to save their remarkable season. On Tuesday they’ll play to advance to the WNBA Finals for the first time since 2015.

“We’ve got to play with confidence and understand that we’ve earned the right to be here and go out and compete at a high level,” White said. “And when you leave everything on the floor, when you control the things that you can control, you can always be proud of whatever happens.”

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