2025 WNBA semifinals winners and losers: Fever slow Wilson and shock Aces; Williams leads Lynx past Mercury

The 2025 WNBA qualifiers resumed on Sunday with the start of the semi-finals. In the first match of the afternoon, Indiana’s fever continued its surprise race with an 89-73 victory against Las Vegas Aces, who had won 18 of their last 19 games. Later, Minnesota Lynx, seeded, used a dominant fourth quarter to defeat the Phoenix Mercury, 82-69.

The fever and the lynx are now ahead of 1-0 in their respective sets of five games and need only two additional victories for the advance in the final. There is still a long way to go in these Ser, and it is not time to start thinking about the final matches for the moment.

For the moment, let’s take a look at the best and the worst on Sunday with the winners of the match 1 and the losers.

Mitchell has long stolen under the radar, but finally obtained the national recognition it deserves this season. A few hours after finishing fifth in the MVP vote, which probably predicts the first appearance in the WNBA team of his career, Mitchell once again put the fever on his back to offer another victory upset in this series.

It took Mitchell a few minutes to leave on Sunday, but in the middle of the first quarter, she made a quick burst of five points and never looked back. The aces, who looked at the defense all day, could not face the speed and shooting of Mitchell.

Mitchell finished with 34 points to establish a new career summit in the playoffs and record the second highest score match in the history of fever in playoffs. The last time a fever player scored 30 points in the playoffs was Shavonte Zellous in the 2012 final.

Most significant matches in the history of fever in playoffs

Mitchell is now on average 26 points per game in the playoffs – equally with A’ja Wilson for any player in this playoff series – In absurd 48.6 / 50.0 / 96.0. Nobody expected that the fever still plays, but if Mitchell continues to play like that, they will not go home anytime soon.

Winner and loser: A’ja Wilson

Early Sunday, Wilson added a fourth MVP record price To his constantly increasing trophy office and joined Cynthia Cooper-Dyke as only players in the history of the League to win consecutive MVPs. Wilson, who officially presented the trophy in the middle of the field before the match, now has four MVPs, three defensive players of the year, a recruit of the year, two titles, a final MVP, seven All-Star appearances, five All-Wnba honors (soon six) and four All-Defensive honors (soon five).

In match 1 against fever, Wilson was nothing like the best player in the history of the WNBA.

She missed her first six shots and never made her offensively against Aliyah Boston and a determined fever defense. Wilson finished with 16 points and 13 rebounds, but pulled 6 out of 22 (27.3%) in the field. Boston and the company did an excellent job by keeping Wilson away from the edge – only eight of his 22 attempts were in the restricted area – and forcing her to launch clumsy and unbalanced.

Wilson’s 16 failed shots were the most she ever had in an eliminatory match. In addition, it was only the third time in Wilson’s career – regular season or playoffs – that she took at least 20 attempts in a match and fired worse than 30%.

The Aces simply cannot afford a match like that of Wilson, which represented 25.5% of their total points during the regular season and 34% of their points in the first round against the Seattle storm. For the Aces to return to this series in match 2, they will need Wilson to play at the MVP level.

Williams, half of the Studbudz, has become a feeling this season, and everyone connecting to Lynx match 1 against Mercury was able to see why she is not only a beloved personality, but one of the most dynamic guards in the league.

Before the fourth quarter, the lynx and the mercury were all square at 59-59. It seemed that we were for another fantastic finish in these qualifying series in 2025, but Williams had other ideas. It was electric in the final setting to help the Lynx overcome the Mercury 23-10 on the way a serial opening victory.

Williams had some huge buckets in the middle of the frame to create a certain separation, then scored or helped on the last nine points of the lynx while they were moving away. She collected six points, four rebounds and four assists in the fourth quarter only.

For the match, Williams collected 23 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and five interceptions to become the fifth player in the history of the WNBA qualifiers with an effort of 20 points, five rebounds, five strokes and five components.

20/5/5/5 games in the history of the WNBA qualifying series

Loser: the offense of mercury in the second half

The Mercury largely controlled the first half of match 1 against the lynx thanks to a brilliant offensive display. They entered at will – they had more points in the painting (42) than the Lynx in total (40) – pulled 56.4% of the land and helped 13 of their 22 baskets. Six different players have marked up up to nine years.

When the mercury works as if they were first half, they seem unstoppable. All the season, however, they had a hard time maintaining the right approach. Too often, they go to lulls where their selection of shooting deteriorates and the offensive collapses. Although the Mercury was able to get away with these stretching against New York freedom in the first round, it is clear to match 1 that they will not be able to do it against the lynx.

In the second half, the Mercury stopped insisting on the basket and began to settle for traction sweaters and 3 recovery points. The lynx deserves a ton of credit for having increased their intensity on the defensive, but the mercury was far too willing to play in their hands.

Compare the first half’s shooting graph to Mercury (top) to their second half shooting graph (bottom).

In particular, Mercury had more marks in painting in the first half (21) than attempted painting in the second period (14).

In the second period, Mercury only succeeded in 22 points – less than in the two quarters in the first half – and pulled 9 out of 36 (25%) in the field, including 2 out of 15 (13.3%) of the 3 -point range. Kahleah Copper and Sami Whitcomb were the only players of the team to score more than two points after the break, and Copper needed 16 shots to do it.

The longtime fans of the WNBA may remember Maria Kliundikova (born Vadeeva) as a young big promising for the Los Angeles sparks from 2018 to 29. The former first round choice returned to Russia after the 2019 season, and was returned to WNBA that this year.

Kliundikova joined the Sparks training camp for training, but was a surprise cup and did not make its final list. It was a blessing for the lynx, which signed it a few weeks later to increase their depth of the before zone. Although Kliundikova did not play heavy minutes during the regular season, she almost always delivered when she is called. The lynx had a clear note more-12,2 when it was on the ground.

During the first round of the playoff series, Kliundikova only played four minutes from the two -game Lynx games of the Goldenx of the Golden State Valkyries. It seemed to receive another “DNP – the coach’s decision” on Sunday until Cheryl Reeve decides to give him a chance in the last minute in the third quarter.

Kliundikova was ready and helped change the game. She played almost the fourth quarter and was vital at both ends while the Lynx has outlined the Mercury of 13 points in the final setting. In his eight minutes of action, Kliundikova collected four points, four rebounds and two interceptions. Appropriately, the lynx was more than 14 when it was on the ground.

After his high performance in the fourth quarter, do not be surprised if Reeve goes to Kliundikova earlier in match 2 to help fight the physicity of mercury in painting.