Bradenton, FL (September 7, 2020)—With one week remaining in the 2020 WNBA regular season, there is still much to be decided with regards to which teams make the playoffs, along with their eventual postseason seeding.

Despite being in second place, one-and-a-half games back of first place Seattle, Las Vegas controls its own destiny—win their final four games, and the Aces will be the one seed. Earning one of the top two seeds gives a team a double bye into the semifinals, avoiding the one-and-done, single-elimination games in the first and second rounds of the playoffs.

Las Vegas has a tough stretch to close out the regular season with four games in six days, beginning with Indiana, Tuesday, September 8. Tip on ESPN2 is slated for 10 pm ET/7 pm PT.  The Aces final three games are against fourth-place Minnesota (13-6), third-place Los Angeles (14-5), and the first-place Storm (16-3).

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Indiana (5-14) is in a battle of its own, competing with Dallas (7-12), Washington (5-13) and Atlanta (5-14) for the final playoff berth. After starting the season with a 5-7 record, the Fever have dropped seven straight. They close out the year with the Aces, Tuesday, the New York Liberty (2-16), Thursday, and the Lynx, Saturday.

Six of the Fever’s last seven losses have been by double figures, and quite a bit of their slide is due to their defense. Through 12 games, they were allowing an average of 87.2 points. Although that was only 10th in the league at the time, over the last seven games, they are giving up 94.1 points per game. Opponents are shooting better from the field, and the free throw line, but not much has changed from beyond the arc, which would suggest that it is the team’s interior defense that is being exploited the most.

An additional problem for the Indiana D is that they force the fewest turnovers in the league, causing opponent miscues on just 13.9 percent of all possessions. At the risk of piling on, we will close the book on the Fever’s defense with the fact that Indiana is on pace to post the least efficient defense in WNBA history, as they allow 112.0 points per 100 possessions. The current record holder is the 2018 Chicago Sky, who allowed 109.9 points per 100 possessions.

The Fever’s offense hasn’t been as good during this most recent stretch either, going from scoring 82.3 points per game to 79.0. A lot of that drop off seems to be due to the team’s output from three-point range, where they shot 36.1 percent over their first 12 games, but 31.3 percent since.

Kelsey Mitchell leads the Fever in scoring, averaging 17.5 points per game. She averages the second most made threes per game (2.5) and connects at a 38.1 percent clip. Tiffany Mitchell (13.3), Candace DuPree (11.9) and Teria McCowan (10.9) are also scoring in double figures for Indiana.

Las Vegas has won two in a row, and 13 of its last 15 in an effort to put some daylight between themselves and the rest of the WNBA, but just four games separate the top five teams in the league.

The Aces identity hasn’t changed much over its three years in Las Vegas, as the team continues to go against the offensive grain by eschewing the long ball and pounding it into the paint instead.  The Aces take a league-low 11.2 three-pointers per game, but pace the circuit in points scored from two point range, and are second in points scored at the free throw line.

MVP and Defensive Player of the Year candidate A’ja Wilson is the epitome of this philosophy, as she has taken just one three-pointer in her career, and has led the league in free throw attempts per game each year of her career. This season, she is second in the league in scoring (20.3), seventh in rebounding (8.4) and fourth in blocked shots (1.78).

Las Vegas has a multitude of additional offensive weapons, including age-defying, five-time All-Star Angel McCoughtry and three-time All-Star Kayla McBride. McCoughtry is posting career highs in a number of rate stats including field goal percentage (.518), three-point field goal percentage (.407) and free throw percentage (.857). McBride continues to be the team’s primary long ball threat, while averaging 12.2 points per game.

The Aces bench has been the most productive in WNBA history to date, and if it maintains its current pace will set league marks for most points (35.0), assists (10.0) and minutes played (18.0) per game. They are also grabbing 15.6 boards per game, which is just off the record set by the New York Liberty in 2015 (15.8), who were also coached by Bill Laimbeer.

Dearica Hamby and Jackie Young have provided the most consistent punch among the reserves. Hamby is making a strong case for her second straight 6th Woman of the Year award, as she is averaging career highs in scoring (13.2), assists (2.3), steals (1.8), field goal percentage (.554) and three-point field goal percentage (.464).

Young is in the running for the most improved player award, and also posting career high numbers across the board. She has been even better over the past 13 games, averaging 13.1 points while connecting on 51.1 percent of her shots from the field.

Las Vegas is 24-19 all-time against the Fever, including wins in 8 of the last 9 meetings.