A'ja Wilson Drops 38, Aces Blow Out Caitlin Clark's Fever 102-85 in Playoff Opener

The Las Vegas Aces didn't need a fourth quarter to settle Game 1. They settled it in the second.

Las Vegas beat the Indiana Fever 102-85 on Sunday, September 27, at Michelob ULTRA Arena, opening their best-of-three first-round playoff series with a lead that swelled to 27 points at its peak. A'ja Wilson went for 38 points and 16 rebounds, according to Fox News, and Indiana never found an answer for her on either end of the floor.

The game turned in the second quarter. Indiana held a 34-33 lead with 7:45 left before halftime, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Over the next seven minutes, the Aces outscored the Fever 29-13, and Las Vegas walked into the locker room up 62-47.

Turnovers did the damage. Indiana coughed up 17 turnovers that Las Vegas converted into 28 points, the Review-Journal reported, citing Fever head coach Stephanie White. Caitlin Clark alone had six turnovers, four of them in the first half.

"A lot of it was our turnovers," White said, according to the Review-Journal. "A lot of them came in the second quarter and then when they get some easy ones, then the basket looks really big and they start hitting some 3-pointers."

Clark finished with 15 points, 10 assists and three rebounds, a double-double that looks better on paper than it played on the floor. She shot 6-of-17 from the field and 3-of-10 from three in 34 minutes, per the Review-Journal, and picked up five fouls before fouling out of rhythm in the third quarter.

Asked to grade her team's effort at making Las Vegas take tough shots, Clark didn't soften it. "An F," she said, according to the Review-Journal. "I thought our actions were sloppy. What we were running wasn't great and nobody got an easier, open look."

Kelsey Mitchell didn't fare much better, going 4-of-16 for 12 points and three assists, according to Fox News. With Indiana's top two scorers struggling to create, the offense fell to Aliyah Boston, who led the team with 18 points, eight rebounds and four assists, and to Sophie Cunningham off the bench, who added 13 points on three made threes.

None of it was enough to slow down a Las Vegas team playing with an obvious size and physicality advantage. Fox News described Indiana's backcourt "fighting through traps and relentless double teams" for most of the afternoon, and the box score backs that up: Clark and Mitchell combined to shoot 10-of-33 from the field.

Indiana fans who watched this team beat the defending champions twice during the regular season had a legitimate case for optimism heading into the playoffs. The Fever's own regular-season results against Las Vegas support that. The counterpoint is equally factual: Indiana also closed the regular season getting blown out by 20 points against the Minnesota Lynx, per Fox News, and carried zero momentum into Sunday. Both things are true. The playoff version of this Aces team, with Wilson playing at an MVP level, simply looked like a different animal than the one Indiana beat in the regular season.

Clark said before the game she was trying not to let the moment feel bigger than it was. "You can't make this moment seem way bigger than it is and psych yourself out," she said, per the Review-Journal. She's still chasing her first playoff win as a pro. Indiana was swept in the 2024 first round and Clark missed last year's postseason entirely with an injury, according to the Review-Journal.

White framed the loss as a teaching moment rather than a crisis. "Oftentimes, you have to be humbled first," she said. "You don't often learn from the success." Whether that lesson translates into a different result depends entirely on what happens Tuesday.

Game 2 is set for 3:30 p.m. ET Tuesday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, according to the Review-Journal. It's win or go home for the Fever. Lose, and the series ends in a two-game sweep before it ever gets back to Las Vegas for a Game 3.