CHICAGO — The first three games between the Indiana Fever and Chicago Sky were defined by their competitive nature, and those June matchups were decided by a combined 10 points.
That wasn’t the case Friday, however, in the teams’ fourth and final meeting of the regular season: The Fever (16-16) won easily, 100-81 (and led by as many as 27 points), to reach the .500 mark for the first time since May 2022, when they were 2-2. Indiana’s 103 consecutive games below .500 was the third-longest streak in WNBA history, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
The last time the franchise had a .500 record or better in the month of August? It was 2016, the final season of the legendary Tamika Catching.
With their largest margin of victory this season, the Fever also secured a season-high series win against the Sky by 3-1.
“It feels good to be at .500 right now,” Indiana coach Christie Sides said. “It's been a long time since the Fever were at .500. I'm very proud of that and where we are from where we started. But I never had any doubt that this is where we could be.”
Indiana has been one of the hottest teams in the league since the Olympic break, improving to 5-1 in that span. By reaching the 100-point mark on Friday (a season-high in scoring), the Fever proved once again that they have had the league's best offense since mid-June and have become one of the most dangerous teams in the WNBA.
Rookie sensation Caitlin Clark was mesmerizing with a career-high 31 points and 12 assists. She is the fifth player in WNBA history with 30 points and 10 assists in a game and the third to do so in regulation.
Chicago, which held a Barbie Night in honor of rookie star Angel Reese, has lost five straight and six of seven in the second half. Michaela Onyenwere and Lindsay Allen led the Sky with 20 and 19 points, respectively.
Below are three takeaways from the contest.
Fever's hot offensive gives no respite
Indiana has had the league's best offensive rating since June 13, and Friday's performance will only increase that number.
After a slow start and trailing by 13 points, the Fever got into a rhythm with their specialty: pushing the pace and converting from the 3-point arc. Mitchell (23 points) led the charge with 18 points in the first half, her most in a half this season, but she and Clark combined for 6-of-9 3-point shooting in the first 20 minutes. It was more of the same in the second half, allowing the Fever to put together one of their best 3-point shooting nights of the season (13-of-29).
Clark will make the headlines for her career night, but the team was also quick to acknowledge the defensive contributions of Temi Fagbenle, who led the team with 29-plus points off the bench, Lexie Hull, who maintained her recent hot shooting (3-of-4 from deep) and NaLyssa Smith, whose 11 points in the third quarter steadied the Fever when Aliyah Boston went to the bench with foul trouble.
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Angel Reese gets double-double with a good basket
Angel Reese continues his double-double streak with a sweet basket against the Fever.
The skid in the sky continues
The Sky grabbed all the momentum early Friday and established an offensive flow that allowed them to build a 24-11 lead. Coach Teresa Weatherspoon preached a “next player up” mentality before the game with leading scorer Chennedy Carter (health and safety protocols) absent, and Allen and Onyenwere answered the call, starting the game a combined 7-of-9 from the field and 3-of-3 from the 3-point arc. By halftime, when the Sky were down by just five, those two had combined for 28 of Chicago’s 42 points.
Late-game execution has been a sticking point for the Sky in recent games, but Friday was more a case of things falling apart. The Fever pulled within three points late in the first quarter, then won the middle two quarters by a combined 19 points. Even when Chicago got within single digits in the third quarter, it never looked like Indiana had truly lost control.
Since the season resumed, Weatherspoon has been imploring his team to be more disciplined on defense, to know and execute scouts' orders. Allowing 100 points (the most the Sky have allowed all season) and letting the Fever get virtually everything they wanted on offense was the opposite of that.
“We've got a lot of things to fix, and that starts on the defensive side of the ball,” Weatherspoon said. “We're not disrupting. We're allowing teams to get shots where they want, when they want.”
“Defense is the toughest thing you're going to have in this game. In the third quarter, we kept sending them to the line.”
Guard Rachel Banham, who joined the team last month in the trade that sent then-leading scorer Marina Mabrey to Connecticut, didn't hold back in the postgame news conference, saying “at times we just lacked effort.”
“If you're not motivated by getting beat up, we have a problem,” he said. “Then don't wear the uniform. You better feel it on your chest.”
Chicago doesn't have much time to figure things out, as it faces a tough road trip. It plays at Minnesota on Sunday and at Las Vegas on Tuesday.
The playoff race is getting more interesting
Don't look now, but if the regular season ended today, the Fever would earn the sixth seed in the playoffs as they own the tiebreaker over the Phoenix Mercury, who have a similar 16-16 record.
A lot can still change in the next three weeks, but the idea of the Fever making it as high as a sixth seed in the postseason seemed far-fetched when they began 2024 with a 1-8 record. Their favorable remaining schedule — they have three games left against teams with winning records, and two of them at home — should make Indiana fans feel pretty comfortable with the team’s position with the playoffs right around the corner.
Meanwhile, Chicago (11-20) is holding on for dear life to its eighth-place finish amid its worst losing streak of the season. And yet, it still holds a one-game lead over the Atlanta Dream, who fell to the two-time defending champion Las Vegas Aces on Friday night. The Dream have been unable to capitalize on the Sky's slump, which has lost four straight following wins over the Storm, Sun and Mercury early in the second half. And with the Wings' win over the Lynx, Dallas can't be counted out either, as it's now two games behind Chicago (as is Washington).
A lot can happen in three weeks, but if the Sky want to play into late September, they need to fix their problems quickly before their sixth straight playoff berth slips through their fingers.
