As the final games of the 2024 WNBA regular season begin, only a few playoff games remain to be decided.

One is whether the Atlanta Dream, Washington Mystics or Chicago Sky can secure the eighth and final playoff spot. And another is whether the Connecticut Sun or Las Vegas Aces can secure the No. 3 seed.

As it stands, the Sun are in third place. But if they lose to the Chicago Sky today and the Aces beat the Dallas Wings, Las Vegas would be in third place.

Whichever team takes third place will face the sixth-seeded Indiana Fever, led by sensational rookie Caitlin Clark.

However, it was announced that the Aces will rest all four of their best players (A’ja Wilson, Jackie Young, Chelsea Gray and Kelsey Plum) on Thursday against the Wings.

While this is normal for a veteran team, some fans on social media are convinced that Vegas is deliberately trying to lose Thursday’s game (and the resulting third-place finish) so they don’t have to face Clark and the Fever.

“a team of 5 olympians avoiding a rookie in the playoffs 😭😭😭😭😭,” wrote X user @wsgcaesar.

For comparison, all four of the Aces players mentioned above played for Team USA at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, while Aces forward Megan Gustafson also played for Team Spain in Paris.

“The Las Vegas Aces say they’d rather play the Seattle Storm than the Indiana Fever in the first round. Vegas is resting their star players and losing the chance to become the 3rd seed,” @WNBAStormChaser added.

To be clear, the chances of the Aces resting their best players to avoid the Fever are virtually zero; especially considering they are 4-0 against Clark and Indiana this season.

Here’s what most fans responded to the above comment, including X user @natfluential who wrote: “Considering they just beat the Fever in a miniseries, I’d guess the only thing on their minds is resting their players.”

Regardless of the Aces’ reason for this hiatus, the first round of the WNBA playoffs is sure to produce some intriguing matchups.