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Alexa Philippou, ESPN
CHICAGO — The first three Indiana Fever-Chicago Sky games were defined by their competitive nature, with the final margins coming down to a combined 10 points.
That wasn’t the case Friday, though, in the teams’ fourth and final meeting of the regular season: The Indiana (16-16) cruised to a 100-81 victory to reach the .500 mark for the first time since May 2022, when they were just 2-2. Indiana’s 103 straight games under .500 was the third-longest streak in WNBA history, per Elias.
The Fever also ensured a win of the season series against the Sky, 3-1.
Indiana has been one of the hottest teams in the league since the Olympic break, improving to 5-1 in that span. By hitting the century mark in scoring — a season-high in points — the Fever demonstrated once more how they’ve had the best offense in the league since mid-June.
Rookie sensation Caitlin Clark was spellbinding with 31 points, a career-high, and 12 assists. She is the fifth player in WNBA history with 30 points and 10 assists in a game, and third to achieve that stat line in regulation.
Chicago, which held a Barbie Night in honor of rookie star Angel Reese, is now losers of five straight games and six of their last seven in the second half. Michaela Onyenwere and Lindsay Allen paced the Sky with 20 and 19 points, respectively.
Here are three takeaways from the contest.
Fever red-hot offense shows no let up
Indiana has had the best offensive rating in the league since June 13, and Friday’s performance will only boost that number.
After a slow start and falling behind by 13, the Fever got into a groove with their bread and butter: by pushing the pace and converting from the 3-point arc. Mitchell (23 points) led the charge with 18 first-half points – her most in a half this season — but both she and Clark combined for 6 for 9 shooting from 3 in the first 20 minutes. It was more of the same in the second half, allowing the Fever to manage one of their best 3-point shooting nights of the season (13 for 29).
Clark will get the headlines for her career night, but the team was also quick to credit the defensive contributions of Temi Fagbenle, who was a team-best +29 off the bench, Lexie Hull, who kept up her recent hot shooting (3 for 4 from deep) and NaLyssa Smith, whose 11 third-quarter points stabilized the Fever when Aliyah Boston went to the bench in foul trouble.
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Angel Reese secures double-double with nice bucket
Angel Reese continues her double-double streak with a sweet bucket vs. the Fever.
Sky skid continues
The Sky had all the momentum early on Friday and established an offensive flow that allowed them to build an early 24-11 lead. Coach Teresa Weatherspoon preached a next-man up mentality going into the game with top scorer Chennedy Carter (health and safety protocols) absent, and Allen and Onyenwere answered the call, starting the game a combined 7 for 9 from the field and 3 for 3 from the 3-point arc. At the half, where the Sky were down only five, those two had combined for 28 of Chicago’s 42 points.
Late game execution was the sticking point for the Sky in recent games, but Friday was more of a case of the wheels falling off as the game went on. The Fever pulled within three by the end of the first, then won the middle two quarters by a combined 19 points. Even when Chicago was within single digits in the third quarter, it never felt like Indiana had really lost control.
Since the season resumed, Weatherspoon has been imploring her team to be more disciplined defensively, to know and execute the scout. Allowing 100 points – the most the Sky have allowed all season – and letting the Fever get pretty much whatever they wanted offensively was the opposite of that.
“We have a lot of things we need to correct, and it starts on the defensive side of the ball,” Weatherspoon said. “We’re not being disruptive. We’re allowing teams to get shots where they want it, when they want it.
“Defense is the hardest damn thing you’re going to play in this game. In the third quarter, we sent them to the line over and over and over and over.”
Guard Rachel Banham – who joined the team last month in the trade that sent then-top scorer Marina Mabrey to Connecticut – didn’t hold back in the postgame press conference, saying “we just had a lack of effort sometimes.”
“If you’re not motivated getting your a- whipped, we’ve got a problem,” she said. “Then don’t put on the uniform. You better feel this in your chest.”
Chicago doesn’t have a lot of time to figure things out with a difficult road swing ahead, where they’ll play a Minnesota Sunday and at Las Vegas Tuesday.
Playoff race gets more interesting
Don’t look now – if the regular season ended today, the Fever would earn the sixth seed in the playoffs, as they own the tiebreaker over the similarly 16-16 Phoenix Mercury.
A lot can still change over the next three weeks, but the notion of the Fever getting as high as a sixth seed in the postseason seemed far-fetched when they started 2024 with a 1-8 record.
Chicago (11-20), meanwhile, is holding onto the eighth seed for its life. It is still a half-game ahead of the Atlanta Dream, who play later Friday against the two-time defending champion Las Vegas Aces.
