Don’t look now, but are the Indiana Fever suddenly a legitimate WNBA playoffs threat?
It’s starting to look that way. The Fever have won each of their two games since the WNBA season resumed, including a 92-75 triumph over the Seattle Storm on Sunday.
Indiana is solidly on the right side of the WNBA playoffs bubble, sitting in the No. 7 seed currently. The Fever own a 1.5 game lead over No. 8 seed Chicago and are three games clear of the Atlanta Dream who are the first team on the outside looking in.
CBS Sports’ Jack Maloney now has the Fever at No. 5 in his latest WNBA power rankings.
Late on Sunday afternoon, the Indiana Fever ran away from the Seattle Storm in the fourth quarter with a near perfect 10 minutes of basketball. They put up 33 points on 12-of-15 from the field, including 8-of-10 from downtown, assisted on 10 of those baskets and held the Storm to 17 points on the other end.
Caitlin Clark received most of the headlines from the Fever’s win, and for good reason after she broke Ticha Penicheiro’s rookie assist record, which had stood since 1998, the league’s second year of existence.
The bigger takeaway, though, from another impressive win by the Fever, and specifically that fourth quarter, is that this team suddenly looks like a potential threat come playoff time. They’re now 5-0 in their last five games against teams with winning records, and are 11-6 overall since their brutal 2-9 start. Over that time period, only the Liberty, Lynx and Aces have a better record, and only the Liberty have a better offense. – Maloney, CBS Sports.
The WNBA All-Star and Olympics break does appear to have done Caitlin Clark and the Fever some good. Really, dating back to the June 7 win over the Washington Mystics, the Fever have been one of the league’s best teams.
Indiana probably feels like they let games against Chicago, Washington and Dallas get away in their 11-6 stretch, too.
Clark has posted back-to-back terrific games since the return from the prolonged break. The 6-foot rookie guard tallied her 10th double-double of the season with 29 points and 10 rebounds in the 98-89 win over the Phoenix Mercury before dropping 23 points and nine assists against the Storm.
In the win over the Storm, Clark passed Ticha Penicheiro for the WNBA’s single season rookie assists record. Clark also sank a trio of 3-pointers and passed Tamika Catchings’ Fever rookie record for the most made 3-pointers in a season.
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