At 20-12 and in fourth place in the WNBA, could the Indiana Fever be threatening to win their second championship and first in the Caitlin Clark era?
If so, the path to get there will undoubtedly face the same scrutiny that has followed them for the past three seasons.
The Fever were expected to make the playoffs entering 2024, Clark’s rookie year. They did, as the No. 6 seed with a 20-20 record, before falling to the No. 3 seed Connecticut Sun (28-12) in the first round.
The Clark-only fans may have
been disappointed by the .500 record and first-round exit, as many of them expected Clark and her team to immediately dominate the sport. However, it wasn’t until 2025 that it became a consensus expectation that Indiana should compete for a championship.
Those expectations came with the additions of DeWanna Bonner, Natasha Howard and Sophie Cunningham over the offseason. Injuries plagued the Fever though, including limiting Clark to 13 games, and they would finish just four wins better than 2024 in the regular season.
The 2025 playoffs were a different story, as the team, still missing Clark and a number of other key contributors, upset the No. 3 seed Atlanta Dream in the first round and then took the eventual champion Las Vegas Aces to the brink in the semifinals. Vegas went on to sweep the Finals, indicating that perhaps Indiana would have won it all had they fared better in overtime of Game 5 versus the Aces. And, keep in mind, their All-WNBA First Teamer, Kelsey Mitchell, missed all of the fourth quarter and overtime because of cramping.
That’s how close the Fever were to winning the championship last year, and they would have won it without arguably their best player in Clark.
It was a quieter offseason in 2026, with the team losing Howard to the Minnesota Lynx and not picking up any stars. (Bonner had already rejoined the Phoenix Mercury during the 2025 season.)
But Clark was back, and the expectations remained similar to what they were entering 2025. Our Edwin Garcia put Indiana in the tier of true title contenders and WNBA.com placed them at No. 3 in their preseason power rankings.
Indy has overcome early-season adversity
The Fever lost their opener by three points to a Dallas Wings team that featured the last two No. 1 draft picks but that wasn’t expected to be in the top tier right away. Two games later, Indiana fell to 1-2 when they lost in overtime to a Washington Mystics team is building around promising young talent.
Clark averaged 25.3 points and 8.7 assists through those first three contests, but the Fever failed to pick up where they left off after their phenomenal 2025 playoff run without her.
Indiana won their next three games, but then lost two in a row to drop to 4-4. The latter loss was the low point of the season, as they fell 100-84 to the expansion Portland Fire, with Clark scoring just six points. To make things worse, head coach Stephanie White’s benching of Clark during the game was caught on camera and blown way out of proportion.
Three games later, in DC, I witnessed Clark make the first game-winning 3 of her WNBA career to prevent the Fever from falling below .500.
The sky-is-falling feeling in Indiana seems to have been kept in check ever since. The Fever have gone 14-7, and have avoided falling to or below .500 at any point.
The Fever’s offense has been historically high scoring
During the All-Star break, former President Barack Obama offered words of encouragement to Clark, pointing out that the Fever were on a “nice little run.”
At the time, Indiana had won three in a row with point totals of 110, 108 and 123. They won their first two games after the All-Star break as well, with point totals of 105 and 112. The previous WNBA record for consecutive 100-point games was three. The Fever reached the 100-point threshold for a record-increasing sixth-straight time on August 2 against the Lynx’s third-best defense in the W, albeit in an eight-point loss that snapped their winning streak.
It was still an admirable effort against the best team in the league, and, in their next game, they nearly picked up a huge win over another top tier team in the Aces, falling in overtime by two points.
On Saturday, it may have been too close for comfort against a weak Chicago Sky team, but Indiana got back to their winning ways with a 90-86 victory that pushed their record to 20-12. They are now alone in fourth place, which puts them in position to have homecourt advantage in the first round of the playoffs for the first time in the Clark era. They have 12 games to go.
Because of their offense, particularly the offense of Mitchell, Clark and Aliyah Boston, I think it’s fair to call them championship contenders.
Indy’s Big 3 is dominant, despite all the noise
Mitchell is following up her First Team All-WNBA season with murmurs of an MVP candidacy, as she’s averaging 24.2 points per game, which is on pace for sixth all time for a single season.
She is on a current streak of 16 games with at least 20 points, the longest such stretch within the same season in league history.
Mitchell is a professional scorer who can score in a variety of ways, and she’s having a career year not just in volume, but also in efficiency—from 2 and 3. She’s No. 4 in the league with 2.9 triples per game and No. 5 with a percentage of 43.5.
In my opinion, Clark should also be in MVP discussions. As I mentioned back on May 20 in my attempt at a fair assessment of her, nobody else in the league is going to be in the running for BOTH the scoring and assist titles year in and year out. This season, Clark is No. 2 in assists per game at 8.1 and No. 3 in scoring with 21.6 points per game.
She gets docked for her efficiency and turnovers, but her field goal percentage of 44.2 this year is actually solid for a guard, as is her 35.5 percent clip from distance. Her assist to turnover ratio of 1.7 still leaves something to be desired, but the high scoring and assist numbers are overwhelmingly good.
With a combined 45.8 points per game, Mitchell and Clark form a historically good backcourt.
When you add in the Fever’s third-leading scorer, Aliyah Boston, the conversation remains historic.
She is good for 16.9 points per game this year and is shooting 44.9 percent from 3, second in the league, as a center. She, of course, provides a lot more than scoring, with 8.5 rebounds, three assists, 1.4 steals and 1.2 blocks per game. With those numbers, she is a superstar in her own right, giving Indiana one of the best Big 3s not just in today’s W, but of all time.
Could defense or drama undo the Fever?
Defense remains something the Fever need to improve on; they are ninth in the league with a defensive rating of 110. But their offensive rating of 116.7 is second to none, and they’ve got a lot of feel-good vibes going their way as of right now, which they hope will be their X factor down the stretch and in the playoffs.
So much negativity sometimes surrounds this team, and I think it’s unfair to put Clark under so much pressure to make the Finals just because the team nearly got there without her last year. Indiana went on an incredible run in the 2025 postseason, and hopefully Clark’s presence on the court will lead them to even greater heights. But if it doesn’t, that shouldn’t be an indictment of her talent and potential in the league.
Ultimately, Obama’s advice to Clark rings true: Keep the joy, especially since things actually are going pretty well right now.
With Mitchell, Clark and Boston doing what they are doing, and with the team threatening to put up 100 points on a regular basis, it’s a fun time to be a Fever fan.
