The Fever successfully handed out the first upset of this year’s playoffs. They came into the postseason as the sixth seed and had to face one of the best two-way teams in the league. Atlanta was the overwhelming favorite to win the series. In ESPN’s first playoff predictions, all nine analysts picked the Dream to beat the Fever—eight expected them to do it in only two games.
The Fever defied those expectations, but still haven’t gotten rid of their underdog status. Now that one semifinal matchup is officially set, ESPN released its predictions for the Fever-Aces series. All five analysts involved picked the Aces to win in either four or five games.
Upsetting the Aces will be a tall task
The Fever still have several key players out with injuries and are still seen as an underdog, but something crucial has changed about their situation: they can draw tons of confidence from their first-round win over the Dream. If any team can overcome adversity, it’s the Fever.
Nevertheless, beating the Aces will be a tall task, especially defensively. A’ja Wilson and Jackie Young averaged 25 and 21.5 points, respectively, against the Storm. Wilson, in particular, will enter the semifinals with a lot of momentum. She scored 38 points on over 50% shooting from the field and got three steals and two blocks in Game 3. Wilson put up those numbers despite going up against a strong defensive frontcourt of Nneka Ogwumike, Ezi Magbegor, and Dominique Malonga.
The Fever’s frontcourt rotation of Aliyah Boston, Natasha Howard, and Bri Turner will have to work overtime to try and slow down A’ja Wilson—not that anyone ever truly succeeds at that. At least making Wilson work as hard as possible for every point she gets could make a real difference.
Between Kelsey Mitchell, Lexie Hull, Jackie Young, Chelsea Gray, and Jewell Loyd, the series should also feature some fun guard battles on both ends of the floor.
The Fever beat the Aces twice in the regular season, but both of those wins came before the Aces’ big turnaround and 17-game win streak.
This Fever season is already a success
Given the Fever’s bad injury luck and the number of hardship contracts the team had to hand out, making the semifinals is a huge accomplishment. It doesn’t happen often that a team missing most of its original key players and relying on three hardship players who just joined the team to close out the regular season upsets a top-three seed in the playoffs. It may not have happened in the way the Fever hoped, but they got to the playoffs and won their first playoff series since 2015.
Every win from now on is a cherry on top of a surprisingly successful season.