The game rested in Alyssa Thomas’ hands as she stepped to the line down one with 24.6 seconds left, but she gagged both attempts. The Mercury lost 89-86 moments after blanking a poorly designed sideline out-of-bounds play.

 

Somewhere, Nick Anderson let out a sigh of relief at being replaced as a late-game choker. The blunder was the equivalent of a boxer having an opponent wounded in the corner, and then getting knocked out before finishing the job. 

 

Now one is left to wonder how much psychological damage this will inflict on Phoenix. And considering Thomas’ below-average accuracy in the regular season and playoffs at the welfare line, the Aces may want her there again late in Game 2.

 

 Kahleah Copper’s sweet-shooting first half, and Thomas’ work in that time getting to the cylinder became a footnote of history. Instead, Aj’a Wilson’s late six points, Dana Evans’ three enormous triples, and Jackie Young’s go-ahead freebies will be remembered for saving the night in Game 1 of the WNBA’s first best-of-seven Finals.

 

Copper was asked at her postgame interview if she needed to do anything to console Thomas, but she responded, “Nah. She good.”

 

But I don’t know if she was. She looked scared senseless, like an apparition had appeared with a dire warning. The first miss was so bad, it inspired zero confidence in thinking she’d make the second. Thomas did not attend the post-game press conference.

 

Of course, the series is far from over, and Phoenix is capable of winning on tour, as they did in New York and Minnesota during this postseason, yet the road to the Finals has revealed that the Aces are scarier than many imagined, including this scribe. 

 

Never forget how the Aces were dropped by Minnesota to 14-14, getting mowed down at home by 53. They were dead, then they won every game left (30-14), claimed the second seed and took out Seattle and Indiana. 

 

The Aces only made a third of their 3-point tries, and Young plus Wilson shot way below their averages. Some of that will continue because Phoenix is the bigger and more athletic team, but they can’t close another game shooting 33% in hostile territory and expect to go home with a stalemate. The Aces’ best players are too seasoned as back-to-back champions to make it anything short of a struggle until the end.

 

Satou Sabally needs to stay locked in because her outbursts, like the one that gave her a technical foul late, will make her a target.  But most importantly, Thomas owes the Mercury a game, and so does Copper for doing nada offensively in 10 fourth-quarter minutes.

Kelsey Mitchell and Aliyah Boston upstaged A’ja Wilson’s MVP coronation, seizing Game 1 in Las Vegas for the Indiana Fever. The visitors were huge underdogs for the series because the Aces had won 18 out of 19 games since Aug. 3, but none of that mattered. Odyssey Sims said both teams were 0-0 at the last practice before the opener, and if anyone wasn’t sure they mean business, pay attention now.

 

The Fever don’t need Caitlin and the injured Clarkettes to win this series. The Aces are picking poison between Mitchell and Boston, and each one is a lethal dose. Mitchell bends coverages with speed, and Boston does with unmatchable power, but the former was the offensive star of Game 1, carving schemes through the middle for layups and floaters and spraying four 3-pointers. 

 

Boston took over another way: guarding Wilson and locking her up tighter than a medieval dungeon. It was the most dominant six-point game many will probably ever see. It also exposed how ill-equipped the Aces are when Wilson isn’t on a scoring binge.

 

Holding the first four-time MVP to an off-night for a consecutive game won’t be easy, but Boston’s close-range detonation is a huge threat that wasn’t relied on in Game 1. The Aces won’t be able to contain her and Mitchell simultaneously.. 

 

Natasha Howard’s four-for-four start, plus Sims’ third-quarter outburst, were the polish on the gold bricks. Players like them tend to get loose when the defense is keying in on two potent weapons. 

 

Aces coach Becky Hammon cited a lower level of urgency for her club and said they aren’t capable “when they play like that.”

 

Fever coach Stephanie White said, “We can’t trip on anything that’s behind us. We can’t look too far forward and too far in front of us because that’s when you start to lose your focus. We try and we’ve talked about it since day one. We gotta keep the main thing the main thing…”

 

 Game 2 is on Tuesday in Las Vegas and Game 3 is on Friday in Indiana. Game 4 & 5 if necessary would be in Indiana on Sunday and in Las Vegas on Sept. 30.

The Seattle Storm were a quarter away from having their season packed up by the visiting Las Vegas Aces, but Erica Wheeler and Skylar Diggins sprayed 11 points apiece in the fourth quarter to force Game 3. 

 

After the game, Nneka Ogwumike said the Storm are not unfamiliar with tight matches or playing from behind. She also added that they “had a concerted effort to exploit the switch” from Las Vegas’ scheme. 

 

A 23-8 run handed the Aces their first loss after 16 straight wins and two nights after pistol-whipping the Storm by 25 in Las Vegas. No one was more relieved than Seattle coach Noelle Quinn, who is likely close to being ejected from her seat.  

 

The hosts fell behind by as much as 12 in the final sequence, but Diggins started the avalanche, tying the game on a screen-roll floater. 

 

Wheeler had struggled three quarters, missing all five attempts, and checked in with seven minutes left for Brittney Sykes, who was invisible. The latter was the All-Star Seattle brought in via trade on Aug. 5 from Washington, and she was scoreless on Sunday, too.

 

Everything changed as Wheeler made a pull-up trey in NaLyssa Smith’s face in transition. She also curled behind a dribble handoff and fired from the middle, splashed a trifecta from the left corner and poured in a long pull-up two-pointer over Chelsea Gray. 

 

Sykes returned after a subsequent Las Vegas timeout with 31 seconds left to defend the inbound, but Seattle got bailed out because Gray threw her pass off target to Jackie Young. Then Diggins buried another floater in the lane, giving Seattle an 86-83 lead. 

 

Quinn credited rookie Dominique Malonga for holding reigning MVP A’ja Wilson scoreless in the last seven minutes. “We knew that A’ja is a load. If we can keep her to her average, that’s a plus for us.”

 

Game 3 is on Thursday in Las Vegas. 

The dream season became a nightmare as the Pistons celebrated as Eastern Conference champions in the Heat’s house following Game 7 in 2005. The hosts exited to the locker room with their pride wounded, looking like they’d seen an apparition after blowing a 3-2 lead.

 

Two sweeps against New Jersey and Washington were inconsequential because what could have gone wrong in the fourth quarter did. The Heat got away from what worked- giving it to Shaquille O’Neal- instead Dwyane Wade took bad shots and the role players did too much, including Damon Jones, whose turnover with two minutes left resulted in a Rip Hamilton pick-6, tying the game.

 

Wade said after that, “They made plays at the end, you know, that we didn’t make. That was the main thing.”

 

On the other side, Chauncey Billups buried a trifecta and coffin-closing free throws. Rasheed Wallace took the lead for good with freebies and made a vital putback with under a minute left on the next possession. 

 

The Heat’s clock management was suspect, and Wade didn’t get a clean look from deep while down four points with seven seconds left. 

 

O’Neal was the white whale that the front office acquired the previous summer, instantly elevating them to contending status. He was even better than in his last year with the Lakers after shedding around 40 pounds, too, and his presence with the remaining ingredients racked up 59 regular-season victories, the second-most in franchise history at the time. 

 

The one-two combination with O’Neal and Wade was as tough to stop as any league duo, but the latter was compromised with a rib injury suffered in Game 5 and needed an injection before tip-off of Game 7. Ron Culp, who was the Heat’s first trainer and later died in 2021 of cardiac arrest per his official obituary, applied heat to the rib area during timeouts.

 

Heat play-by-play broadcaster Eric Reid told Five Reasons Sports Network that the moment Wade got hurt was a “high point and a low point at the same point.” He tried warming up for Game 6, but never played.  

 

The Heat’s locker room was quiet after elimination because they felt they let one slip away. O’Neal’s voice usually filled every room with bass, but not this time. The Associated Press’ Tim Reynolds was present for the scene. He told FRSN, “If you weren’t within six inches of him, you couldn’t hear him.”  

 

O’Neal was pissed off not just at the outcome but at coach Stan Van Gundy as well because he wanted the ball more late. He complained to anyone who would listen about Van Gundy later that offseason. 

 

Management’s first order of business was to improve when league rules allowed. Team president Pat Riley called Wade in the summer for his input on moves and received feedback from his surprised star player. Wade publicly said on Quite Frankly with Stephen A. Smith during the 2005-06 season that the moves confused him. The changes included: 

 

-Certified playmaker Jason Williams via five-team trade from Memphis. 

 

-Top-shelf perimeter defender and 3-point marksman James Posey via five-team trade from Memphis.

 

-Antoine Walker, a former 20-point-per-game scorer, arrived via a five-team trade.

 

-Gary Payton, whom the Heat wanted for multiple years, committed on Sept. 22. Payton’s defensive prowess was instantly going to help the Heat at guarding at pick and roll, a notorious weakness for O’Neal, who was his teammate in 2003-04 in LA. 

 

-Jason Kapono, the 10th man for the Charlotte Bobcats in 2004-05, was an extra body with outside range. He signed as a free agent on Oct. 3.

 

One of the consequences of Eddie Jones’ inclusion in the Memphis trade was that more was demanded of Wade on defense. Wade added on Quite Frankly, “My concern was defensively… as a young player, I didn’t know how to take that, but I came in and worked hard to become the best defender I can for this team to help us win and still be productive on the offensive end.” The other departures included Keyon Dooling, Rasual Butler, D. Jones, Steve Smith and Christian Laettner.

 

Additionally, one advantage the Heat had going into 2005-06 was that Alonzo Mourning was arguably the best backup big man in the NBA. He was no longer the man who was second and third in consecutive years in MVP voting while winning back-to-back Defensive Player of the Year awards because of a kidney scare years earlier, but Mourning could still guard well and was a respected member of the team. He returned to the Heat on March 1, 2005.

 

Reid said, “On paper, it looked like the greatest team that the franchise had ever put together.” For that reason, the mood around the team was all or nothing. Despite Wade only going into year three, O’Neal would turn 33 that season and with limited time before his powers declined further.

 

 “Some players didn’t love how hard that training camp was,” Reynolds said. “Stan Van Gundy was the coach in that camp, but it was a Pat Riley training camp in a lot of ways.” Multiple members of the team did not show up in Heat shape.

 

While management did its job, making bold alterations for a squad nearly there, one cloud hung in the backdrop: Before the upcoming campaign, Riley said he wanted to be more hands-on with the team, unnecessarily creating speculation about Van Gundy’s job security. 

—

-Stay tuned for more podcasts and written episodes of the ‘06 Files during the Heat’s 2025-26 season.

 

Odyssey Sims nailed a left-handed floater in the lane, lifting the Fever to their 21st win and sinking the Sparks perhaps out of the playoff race. It was her first visit back to LA against the team that waived her on July 2. Aside from the Fever exposing the paint for 52 digits, they outscored LA on second chances (16-5), on the break (13-10) and points off turnovers (23-8).

 

The Sparks had an early 10-point lead but that vanished quickly. The fourth quarter started with the Sparks ahead 58-57. Azura Stevens was a problem for the Fever as she barreled into the paint for two layups and downed a 3-pointer. But they keyed in on Rickea Jackson and Kelsey Plum, holding them to zero points on three second-half attempts. 

 

Sims totaled 21 points, including nine in the fourth quarter on runners in the lane and a wing triple, plus logged three assists and six boards. 

 

After the game, Sims said, “I haven’t been with the team long, but each practice, each game, [We’re] getting better. We have two other new players along with myself, so [we’re] continuing to gel, like [Boston] said… tonight wasn’t pretty, but the most important thing, we came out with the W.”

 

Aliyah Boston also scored six of her 22 points in the fourth quarter as the pendulum swung back and forth six times late. Notably, she missed her first five attempts but made her next 11 of 13 tries, including eight in a row between the first and third quarter.

 

Coach Stephanie White was pleased with her team’s defense and discipline. “The selfless nature of this group just can’t be overstated, and that’s why we are able to be in positions like this that we are able to be in.”

 

The Fever remain the sixth seed, three games ahead of ninth place (Sparks) and one in front of eighth (Valkyries), with five matches left on the calendar. Their games against the Sky (Sept. 5) and the Lynx (Sept. 9) will be in Indiana, but the others versus the Valkyries (Aug. 31), the Mercury (Sept. 2) and the Mystics (Sept. 7) are away.