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Stephanie White's Winless WNBA Playoff Stat Sparks Fever Fan Concern

Stephanie White's coaching history suggests the Indiana Fever have a tough task ahead in beating the Las Vegas Aces.
Grant Young|
Aug 5, 2025; Los Angeles, California, USA; Indiana Fever coach Stephanie White at press conference at the Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
Aug 5, 2025; Los Angeles, California, USA; Indiana Fever coach Stephanie White at press conference at the Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

The Indiana Fever lost to the Las Vegas Aces in a WNBA Semifinals road game on September 23 by a score of 90-68. As a result, the series between these two teams is now split 1-1 heading into Game 3 on September 26, which will take place at Indiana's Gainbridge Fieldhouse Arena.

While the Fever obviously wanted to win this game, it was far from a must-win for them, mainly because they secured an upset victory in Las Vegas' home arena during Game 1. If the Fever headed to the West Coast knowing that they would split these first two away games against the Aces, they would surely be content with that. Now the question becomes whether they'll capitalize on their next two games being at home.

Indiana head coach Stephanie White has an extremely impressive pedigree, which is why the fan base was so excited to have her join the team this past offseason. White began her WNBA head coaching career with the Fever back in 2015. She spent two seasons there before coaching at Vanderbilt University through the 2021 season. From there, she coached the Connecticut Sun in 2023 and 2024 (and won the 2023 WNBA Coach of the Year award).

Indiana Fever head coach Stephanie White reacts in the first half of a September 2, 2025 game
Sep 2, 2025; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Indiana Fever head coach Stephanie White reacts in the first half during a game against the Phoenix Mercury at PHX Arena. Mandatory Credit: Rick Scuteri-Imagn Images | Rick Scuteri-Imagn Images

As impressive as White's resumé is, it seems that early-series success has plagued her in the WNBA playoffs.

Stephanie White's Weird Winless Record After Winning WNBA Playoff Game 1

At one point during Tuesday's broadcast of the Fever vs. Aces game, ESPN showed a graphic on screen that noted Stephanie White is 0-3 after winning Game 1 of a best-of-five WNBA playoff series in her coaching career.

X user @phxsunz25 posted a screenshot of this, which has since gone viral.

These three series are when White's Sun squad beat the Minnesota Lynx in Game 1 of the 2024 WNBA Semifinals before ultimately losing the series in five games, when Connecticut beat the New York Liberty in the 2023 WNBA Semifinals before losing the next three games, and when the Fever won Game 1 of the 2015 WNBA Finals before losing the series to the Lynx in five games.

Non-Fever fans seem to be celebrating this stat.

However, many Fever fans don't like what this stat might mean for how this series will finish.

Regardless of how fans feel about this unique stat, White will either break this streak during this series against the Aces or will fall to 0-4 after winning Game 1 in a best-of-five series.

Fever fans are hoping for the former.

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Grant Young
GRANT YOUNG

Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the Indiana Fever and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.

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