A’ja Wilson has spent the last few months being asked to explain herself. First came the ankle and the back issue. Then, on August 31, came the decision to pull out of Team USA’s World Cup roster. Almost immediately, questions followed. Was she protecting herself for the playoffs? Was something more serious going on? Understandably, she stepped away from much of the outside world, too, saying, “I wasn’t in a really good space”. Yet, the noise never really stopped catching up with her.

Now, as she prepares to lead the Aces into a first-round series against the Indiana Fever, Wilson is speaking more openly about what the past few months have taken out of her. But while the physical issues have been difficult to ignore, she doesn’t want them to become the story of her postseason. That became clear when she addressed her health this week, acknowledging that while things aren’t always perfect, she has no intention of approaching the playoffs as anything less than herself.

“It’s not the best at times, but you push through. This is the time where I can’t really care about much that’s going on, as much as I want to. That’s why I try to dedicate as much time off the court as I can to making sure that I’m good at medical tests, making sure that I’m warm and ready,” said Wilson, per an X post by ESPN’s Kareem Copeland.

“But honestly, I don’t think anyone right now is 100%. So I’m like, please don’t feel bad for me. I’ve still got a job to do, and I’m going to show up for my teammates every day.”

One reporter in the room, caught off guard by how candid she was being, asked gently whether a little sympathy might still be allowed.

“I mean, yeah, sure. I pick and choose when I want to have a little empathy for me, so it’s okay. I still love it,” Wilson said.

Along with the injuries, Wilson’s fans’ concern was also tied to all the song and dance that happened around her decision to pull out of the World Cup. Not wanting to feed into the speculations and speaking to reporters at Aces practice two weeks later, in comments picked up by ESPN Las Vegas radio, she explained that she simply wished to take care “of my body, and what I need to do.”

As for what listening to her body looks like, her routine often involves a cold tub, compression boots, Gatorade, and rolling her feet with a tennis ball. Then comes the decompression: watching Scandal when she wants something intense, followed by Modern Family to bring the temperature back down. Pasta, Alfredo or marinara, can be waiting afterward, while Beyoncé and late-’90s and early-2000s R&B fill the room. Such unwinding matters more than ever when you are walking into a playoff series against an Indiana Fever team that averaged a league-leading 96 points per game during the regular season.

Wilson suffered a right ankle injury on June 28 during a 107-99 win over the Chicago Sky in Chicago. It cost her three regular-season games and the Commissioner’s Cup championship, a 93-85 loss to the New York Liberty. By late summer, a back issue had joined the file. She was listed as questionable ahead of a game against the Toronto Tempo but still logged around 30 minutes. That stretch is what ultimately pushed her withdrawal, alongside Kelsey Plum, from the World Cup roster. Team USA won the tournament anyway, beating France 97-79 in Berlin for a fifth straight world title, with Breanna Stewart taking the tournament MVP trophy that Wilson herself had won back in 2022.

Some of the physical toll also reflects circumstances beyond Wilson’s control. In late August, Aces forward NaLyssa Smith went down with a non-contact left-leg injury against Toronto and was ruled out for the season days later, a brutal loss up front given she was shooting a league-best 63.8 percent from the field at the time. With Smith gone, more of the interior workload shifted onto Wilson, right as her own body started sending up warning signs.

Still, Wilson closed the regular season averaging a league-leading 26.2 points per game, which marked her third straight scoring title, alongside 9.4 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.9 blocks per game. In fact, she averaged a league-high 27.8 points as she led the Las Vegas Aces to a 4-0 record after the World Cup break, enough for the WNBA record-tying 33rd Player of the Week honor for games played from Sept. 17-24. She also added 8.8 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 1.3 steals, and 1.3 blocks per game, while shooting 56.5% from the floor and 90.9% from the line in just 31 minutes per game.

So the question heading into the playoffs isn’t whether Wilson can still produce. She obviously can. The bigger question is what happens when that production meets the team that has made her work harder than most this season. Indiana is waiting, and Wilson has not exactly had her easiest time against the Fever.

She played in two of the teams’ three regular-season meetings after missing one matchup because of an injury, averaging 23 points in those two games while shooting just 39.6% from the field, her second-lowest scoring average and lowest field-goal percentage. The Fever won the regular-season series 2-1. But the first Indiana victory came with Wilson sidelined.

The two franchises met for the first time in the postseason last year, but Indiana’s roster and circumstances look considerably different heading into this year’s rematch. Caitlin Clark and Sophie Cunningham were not part of that series, while Kelsey Mitchell left Game 5 because of cramping and exhaustion.

This time, the Fever arrive with Clark and Mitchell, who combined for 47 points per game during the regular season, making them the highest-scoring backcourt duo in WNBA history. Indiana also led the league in offensive rating, and now gets to test that attack against an Aces team that has spent the second half of the season trying to balance its own depth and perimeter issues.

Besides Smith’s injury, the Aces also waived guard Chennedy Carter in July. Carter had been in the conversation for Sixth Player of the Year after a strong start before injury and illness reduced her availability.

But the Fever have a health concern of their own. Center Aliyah Boston, who has dealt with a lower-leg issue on and off all season, aggravated it again in the regular-season finale against Minnesota and was listed as questionable for Sunday.

Game 1 tips off Sunday afternoon in Las Vegas, one of four series openers on the day’s schedule, with the Aces holding home-court advantage in a best-of-three set that could be over by midweek.