The Fever are used to playing road games that often feel like they're at Gainbridge Fieldhouse or at least a neutral facility of the team's strong national following.
That wasn't the case Sunday when Indiana took the Las Vegas court in the face of a hostile crowd that even booed Caitlin Clark when she had the ball.
The results weren't pretty. The third-seeded Aces, behind a spectacular performance from A'ja Wilson, trounced the No. 6 Fever 102-85 to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three opening-round WNBA playoffs series.
That means the Fever might be getting ready to play their last game of the season at home. They must win Tuesday night to force a deciding Game 3 back in Las Vegas.
“Certainly, we need to prioritize some things we did on the defensive end of the floor,” Fever coach Stephanie White said. “But we also need to prioritize offense because Vegas is a great offensive team. They're going to make tough shots, and some of the ones they made early were tough shots.”
The Aces, who have won three of the past four WNBA championships, are tough when they get up on an opponent. They went 9-4 in close-out games in 2022, 2023 and 2025, the years the Aces won titles.
And now Las Vegas will try to do it again in facing the league's highest-scoring team in the regular season. The Fever averaged 96.0 points per game; the Aces were second at 91.5.
“That's not a team you want to give any life to,” Aces coach Becky Hammon said. “They can just score in bunches. So stick to the game plan, be patient with each other on both ends and then just work hard on defense. You're just going to have to work.”
It doesn't hurt Las Vegas that the world's best player is on its roster. Wilson, named the Associated Press WNBA Player of the Year on Sunday for an unprecedented third year in a row, dominated the Fever by finishing with 38 points, 16 rebounds and four blocked shots.
If that A'ja Wilson shows up in Game 2, the Fever likely will be headed to an earlier offseason than they hoped. But it's not just Wilson. Guards Chelsea Gray and Jackie Young are decorated veterans, and the trio has been the core of the Aces' dynastic run.
“I think there's a commitment there to want to play and be great and try to pull the best out of each other, and that's something that takes time,” Gray said. “It takes trust. When we're getting on each other, we know it comes from a good place, and that doesn't just happen overnight. There's a commitment there to want to continue our legacy in this uniform and doing it together and doing something special."
Both coaches criticized the first-round format, saying it should be five games and the league should consider staging series before the finals within each conference to cut down on the travel.
Maybe that changes in future years, but this is the situation and it's a familiar one.
The Aces had to go through Indiana in last season's semifinals before sweeping Phoenix in the WNBA Finals. But the Fever made Las Vegas work for it, taking the Aces to overtime of the deciding Game 5.
Maybe the Fever, backed by their home crowd, can push the Aces again and force a Game 3. Indiana can't do anything about what happened in the first game.
“I think in a series, you flush (the result) regardless,” Fever All-Star post player Aliyah Boston said. “You come off a win, you're like yes, that’s great, but you have another game. They're going to come out and they're going to play hard. We're looking at it like we didn't play our best basketball. It wasn't great (Sunday), but we have another chance at home. So we just have to be ready to go, and that's our focus right now.”
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Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham, right, defends against Las Vegas Aces guard Chelsea Gray (12) during the first half in Game 1 of an WNBA basketball first-round playoff series Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Steve Marcus)
Indiana Fever forward Monique Billings (25) and guard Caitlin Clark, center, put pressure on Las Vegas Aces center A'ja Wilson (22) during the second half in Game 1 of a WNBA basketball first-round playoff series Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Steve Marcus)
A 71-year-old man who was convicted of killing a police chief's aunt and spent decades on death row was released Monday after prosecutors said newly analyzed DNA evidence doesn't link him to the crime.
A Utah judge ordered Douglas Stewart Carter let out on bail late Monday over objections from the victim's family. Carter is required to wear a GPS monitor while he awaits a new trial in the 1985 killing of Eva Olesen.
The state Supreme Court ordered a new trial last year, citing misconduct by investigators. Carter has maintained his innocence and says a signed confession was coerced.
No physical evidence linked him to the crime scene. But the jury convicted Carter, a Black man, based on the confession and the testimony of two witnesses who said he bragged about killing Olesen, who was white. Those witnesses later recanted.
A DNA analysis received Sept. 22 excluded Carter as a possible match to blood found on a doorknob and genetic material recovered from the handle of a knife used to stab Olesen, who was also shot.
Judge Derek Pullan said those results further undermined the case against Carter, but a reasonable jury still could conclude that he killed Olesen.
Carter was released late Monday and ordered not to have any contact with Olesen's family.
“If the state of Utah had their way, he would have been executed 15, 20 years ago before we discovered the misconduct,” defense attorney Neal Hamilton said after learning of the judge's order. He urged prosecutors to seek dismissal of an aggravated murder charge still pending against Carter.
Carter will be placed in an extended stay hotel near the family of his son, Tyler Anger, who was adopted by another family as an infant and didn’t learn about the conviction until years later, Hamilton said. Carter also will need therapy to deal with his extended incarceration, the attorney said.
“This is going to be a lot for him,” Anger said as he waited outside the Utah County jail, where Carter was held. “I want Doug to put his feet on the grass. He hasn't done that in 40 years.”
A two-month retrial was planned next year, but last week county prosecutors withdrew a notice that they intended to seek the death penalty.
Utah County prosecutor Erwin Petilos told the judge Monday that reassessing Carter’s bail was “necessary and fair” as the state continues to look at the remaining evidence in the case.
Carter, a Chicago native, was living with his mother in Utah when Olesen was killed on Feb. 27, 1985. Court documents indicate the investigation eventually focused on Carter, who was suspected of killing Olesen during a robbery.
By that April, Carter had fled Utah believing he was a suspect in an unrelated assault case, according to court documents. He was apprehended that June in Nashville, Tennessee, where he signed a confession while under interrogation by a Provo detective.
Carter said later that he falsely confessed after police repeatedly threatened him. He was convicted and sentenced to death after a trial in which the defense called no witnesses. He was again sentenced to death after a 1992 retrial, and courts in Utah rejected numerous appeals from Carter in subsequent years.
A turning point came in 2011, when the two witnesses from Carter's original trial were tracked down in Mexico. They said they had been told to lie in court and had received cash and gifts from police, who told them not to disclose the payments. They also said police and prosecutors threatened them and their son with deportation if they did not implicate Carter.
More than a decade of legal wrangling followed before the Utah Supreme Court last year ordered a new trial, citing “multiple instances of intentional misconduct” by police and a prosecutor. A DNA analysis of the evidence was conducted in response to that order, and prosecutors said the results arrived last week. They declined Monday to say whether they're using the DNA evidence to search for other suspects with matching DNA.
Carter's defense attorneys have said witnesses saw a white man fleeing the crime scene and an investigator suppressed evidence pointing to other suspects, including the victim’s husband, Orla Olesen.
They allege that prosecutors were close to filing charges against the husband, but a Provo police lieutenant asked them not to so he could continue investigating. Carter was identified as a suspect soon after, according to court documents.
Orla Olesen, a painting contractor who died in 2009, told police he found his wife dead in their home, partially undressed and with her hands tied behind her back.
Theresa Olesen, a daughter-in-law of Eva Olesen, said during Monday's bond hearing that her family had "serious concerns" about Carter's release.
“By golly we were hoping for a concrete match,” Olesen said of the DNA analysis. “It doesn't mean he wasn't there."
Former death row inmate Douglas Stewart Carter appears in 4th District Court in Provo, Utah, for a bond hearing on Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (Rick Egan/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool)
Former death row inmate Douglas Stewart Carter appears in 4th District Court in Provo, Utah, for a bond hearing on Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (Rick Egan/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool)
Former death row inmate Douglas Stewart Carter appears in 4th District Court in Provo, Utah, for a bond hearing on Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (Rick Egan/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool)
Former death row inmate Douglas Stewart Carter appears in 4th District Court in Provo, Utah, for a bond hearing on Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (Rick Egan/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool)
Former death row inmate Douglas Stewart Carter appears in 4th District Court in Provo, Utah, for a bond hearing on Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (Rick Egan/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool)
