WNBA 2025 Finals: Las Vegas Aces-Pehoenix Mercury
Las Vegas – we call it fencing in the desert. He will meet Las Vegas Aces and Phoenix Mercury in the 2025 WNBA Finals.
The privileges, which are about 300 miles away, won all of multiple titles but have never been met in the championship series before.
Aces 2 outperformed No. 6 in Indiana Fever 107-98 in additional time on Tuesday in game 5 of the semi-finals chain. Now they host Mercury on Friday in game 1 (8 pm ET, ESPN). Phoenix, ranked No. 4, canceled the number 1 Minnesota Linux 3-1 on Sunday.
The Aces, led by MVP A’Ja Wilson, won the title of WNBA in 2022 and 2023. The Mercury Championship was in 2007, 2009 and 2014, all with Diana Turasi as the star of the team. It retired after last season, and the re-preparation list-the leadership of Alyssa Thomas, the Triple Proment-Join-Joinx returned in the finals for the first time since 2021.
The WNBA finals will be the best format out of seven for the first time, so this can be a history maker. Below is a collapse of how to match the difference.
Ordinary season series: Las Vegas went 3-1 against Phoenix
June 15: Mercury 76, Aces 70 (PVA Vegas)
June 29: Aces 84, Mercury 81 (in Phoenix)
August 15: Aces 86, Mercury 83 (in Phoenix)
August 21: Aces 83, Mercury 61 (Las Vegas)
How Phoenix got here
The Mercury Game 1 lost at home in the best three rounds on the road in the five best points in the semi -finals, so they proved that it is far from the house and in the judiciary.
After losing 13 points in match 1 of the semi -finals against Minnesota, Phoenix won each of the next three matches with one numbers, dominating the fourth quarter in each of them. In Game 2, MERCURY beat a disability of 20 points to connect the record for the largest roads in the history of the qualifying for WNBA. Winning in game 3 is likely to be remembered at home at the controversial end of 22 seconds, but it is also characterized by another big Mercury ending. In game 4, Phoenix began cold, as he was leaving 14 in the first quarter and 13 entering the final frame, before withdrawing the 86-81 victory.
How did Las Vegas come here
Las Vegas was 500 at the All-Star break before riding the 16 qualifying series winning. This hot series extended to 17 with match 1 winning in the first round – but after that Acess lost three of its next six games in the post -season before the additional work won on Tuesday in the finals. Las Vegas beat Seattle 2-1 in the best series of three of the first round, then she had to go to the distance to get rid of Indiana No. 6 at the best five times.
On Tuesday, Wilson scored the third professional WNBA-RCORD game consisting of 35 points in the victory of the series. MVP has also become four times the first player with 35 points, 5 rebounds and 5 passes in a separate match.
What we hear about Acess
Looking at the long winning series, Las Vegas was the most important team to enter the qualifiers. But they have struggled to close both the qualifying series so far.
They were almost annoyed by Seattle 7 in the first round, where they got out of the 3-win game 74-73. Then it took a fun time in the game 5 of the semi -finals for them to bypass Indiana, although the fever was exhausted due to injury and loss.
This is something that should be worried about the mercury, which seems to reach its peak in the qualifiers. However, Acess has a great deal of WNBA’s experience to rely on: both Chelsea Gray and Wilson were MVPS for Aceses. Jackie Young has also been a decisive part of the last Las Vegas championships. JEWELLLL LOYD won two titles from WNBA when she was with Seattle.
It took about two and a half months until Acess discovered themselves this season. Once they did, they were huge for the rest of the normal season. They now have a few days before the finals to deal with the place where they fell in the qualifiers despite the progress, because they cannot get the same type of lapses against Phoenix. Michael Foubel
1:18
Phoenix Mercury reaches the finals after Mininsuta Linux was removed
Phoenix Mercury comes from the back to overcome Minnesota Lynx in game 4 to reach the WNBA finals.
What we hear about mercury
The reconstruction processes usually take years to be successful, but in its first season without Taurasi and BRISTNEY GRINER, the Strancise two of the previous wedding, Mercury returns to the finals for the first time since 2021.
Embrace the weakened mentality of mercury throughout the season. Only two players have returned from 2024 – Kaul Cooper and Natasha Mac – the fifth team in the history of the league loses at least 70 % of his registration from the previous season (71.3 %), according to Espn Insights. The other four teams lost records in the following season.
With the loss of two adults – copper and SABLY – missing time extending in the normal season due to injury, Phoenix was not in good health until late July. At the beginning of August, she told the Salally Espn that she felt that her team was playing 80 % of its ability. Mercury was hoping that during the last month of the normal season, they collected all their pieces together. They did.
The junior – Catherine, Weslddd, Sami, Whitumb, and Monic Aqua Makani – were revealed. The addition of Dewanna Bonner in early July provided their seat required experience. The three adults have flourished together.
They were weakened again when they entered the post -season, as they face the New York defense champion in the first round and preferred this year, Minnesota, in the semi -finals. Mercury is the fourth team in the history of WNBA, which cancels both teams who participated in the previous year finals in one season. – Kendra Andrews
What is this series “x factor?
The team played by the three adults is the best wins.
Often in championship games or series, we are looking for one unknown champion, which appears to be an unexpected moment that would decide the result. This series will not be complex or unpredictable. It will go down to Wilson, Young and gray for Aceses and Thomas, Sabaly and copper for mercury. Certainly, there may be a large indicator of Sami Whitcomb 3, or an extension where Dana Evans Aces provides some additional energy-but this is related to stars.
Its effect was on display on both Las Vegas and Phoenix games in the semi -finals. Wilson (35), Young (32) and Gray (17) combined for 84 out of 107 points; Thomas (23), Salally (21) and copper (13) was the three prominent Mercury scorer on their return to Minnesota in game 4. The feature will go to the trio that separates himself, even if he is with a small margin.
Get rid of the first time that these teams met in the normal season (Mercury victory) because Wilson did not play. In the last three meetings, MVP was the best player on the ground, with an average of 25.0 points. Young scored in double numbers in each of these games, and Gray was at least nine. On the contrary, in the loss of Phoenix, SABLY had only 10 points in 3 of 14 fire. In the latest match, Al -Nahhas got only six points. Las Vegas won all these three games. Aces will win its third title in four years if this modern date repeats itself. Charlie Karim
What is the size of the comfort of Phoenix after Las Vegas had to go to additional work to win the 5th match on Tuesday?
I don’t think it will be a big factor. Las Vegas will remain two full days without any travel. While Acess will sleep well after holding a fever, they will do so in his own family. Even as two additional days have passed since the preparatory, mercury is still waiting to find out their opponent. The rest may help a little, but another 48 hours of this year may mean little. Adrenaline overcomes any fatigue for most of these players, and the two teams have all their regular courses in complete trends to the best series of seven. – generous
How do they match
While only two players from Mercury Mercury returned last season (Copper and Mack), Acess have six players from last season, five of them – Wilson, Gray, Young, Kiah Stokes and Kierstan Bell – at Las Vegas 2022 and 2023 teams.
During the normal season, Aces and Mercury were close to each other in categories such as the average scale (83.6 and 82.8), the net (Plus-3.7 and Plus-3.4) and the effective target ratio (50.6 and 50.2). The same is for 3 throws per game, although mercury had a slight edge there with 9.4 to Aces’ 9.1.
There was more separation with the defensive classification, as mercury was 102.5 and IES 104.4. In the past, Acess was a better defensive team than it was this year, but Las Vegas has improved in this field since its season began in early August.
As for the largest stars of the teams, Wilson and Thomas faced 26 times in their career in WNBA, where he counted both the regular season and the qualifiers. Wilson has an edge of 17-9 in general, 6-3 in the qualifiers. The average rate of Wilson was 21.0 points, 10.1 rebounds, 2.8 blocks in the qualifying matches against Thomas, which reached average of 15.4 points, 8.4 rebound balls and 5.1 assists.
Both team coaches, Las Vegas Becky Hamoun, have spent Nate Tebts from Phoenix, both for several years as assistants of the American Professional League before the main coaches at Wnba took over. Hamon was an assistant in San Antonio Spears from 2014-2022, and Tibets was an assistant from 2011-2023 with Cleveland Cavaliers, Portland Trail Blazrez and Orlando Magic. – Voepel