ATLANTA (AP) — After the Indiana Fever's fourth straight win, Caitlin Clark said coach Stephanie White “made a great point” in her postgame talk with the team by saying “This felt like a playoff game.”
If so, the Fever looked playoff-ready in their 95-91 overtime win over the Atlanta Dream on Sunday.
The Fever showed impressive depth with four players scoring 18 or more points. Perhaps of more importance, Indiana responded to a major challenge from
an Atlanta team that began the day one-half behind the Fever for the important fourth-place spot in the playoff standings. The top four teams receive home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
“Coming into each night, we know how important that win is to hopefully get home-court advantage in the playoffs,” Clark said.
Atlanta led 72-64 entering the fourth quarter. Indiana held the Dream to nine points in the final period of regulation.
Despite giving the Fever an overall grade of only “B-minus” for the game, Clark had praise for her team.
“Just proud of our group,” Clark said. “Super resilient. ... Obviously, this was a big one.”
Clark scored 26 points with nine assists. After scoring only five points in the first half, Kelsey Mitchell had an important layup late in overtime to finish with 20 points. It was Mitchell's 19th consecutive game scoring at least 20.
“Kelsey struggled from the floor in the first half, and she found it in the second half,” White said. “I think that’s part of her growth, which is knowing to stay with it, that it’s going to come.”
White said Clark and Mitchell “were both terrific” and said Clark was effective in creating scoring opportunities for her teammates.
“The way that she’s getting us into offense, the way she’s using the floor to give her teammates shots ... she’s allowing the game to flow, and she’s doing a great job of finding her teammates in that,” White said. “The way she does that, it opens things up for her.”
Makayla Timpson delivered Indiana's first three field goals of overtime to score a career-high 20 points. Aliyah Boston added 18 points with 14 rebounds.
Clark said Atlanta, which had 32 points from Allisha Gray and 15 points with 14 rebounds from Angel Reese, “is a team that will be scary in the playoffs. They're great at what they do. They have a lot of different weapons.”
The Dream also had the support of a sellout crowd of 17,044 at State Farm Arena, the home of the NBA's Atlanta Hawks and also the usual site of Dream games when Clark and the Fever are in town.
“For us, these are the games you get up for, that’s what’s fun about competition,” Clark said. “You know, you want to play the best. It brings out the best in you. Obviously, that’s been a challenge and we’re really good at that.”
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