DALLAS – On paper, the Indiana Fever had another dominant win Friday night.
The Fever left American Airlines Center with an 88-78 victory over the Wings and held every Dallas player except 2025 No. 1 pick Paige Bueckers (who had 22 points) to single digits, and won the rebounding batttle by 14.
It was Indiana’s fourth straight win, a season-high this season — and the longest active streak in the league.
Still, Kelsey Mitchell didn’t think Indiana (16-12) played up to its full potential on Friday night.
“Hats off to Dallas. They’re an unbelievable team, a young, vibrant team with great players, but I think for us, when we get a chance to really press, get in a position to win games, we got to win them,” Mitchell said. “I think anybody, any competitor, knows that when you say win, win. And I think we took some time off. We had a little drop off today.”
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Yes, there were some aspects of Friday night’s game that weren’t as pretty. They built up a 13-point lead in the third quarter they allowed to get down to six, giving Dallas (8-21) a fighting chance in the second half.
Indiana turned the ball over 19 times, with multiple being unforced turnovers like stepping out of bounds or badly-timed passes, which led to 13 points from Dallas. Indiana also sent Dallas to the line 25 times, and the Wings made 24 of those shots.
The Fever still managed to get by the Wings, but those kinds of inconsistencies may be the difference in a win or a loss against a team in the top half of the standings like Minnesota, Seattle or Phoenix.
“I didn’t feel like we played particularly well tonight,” Fever coach Stephanie White said. “But, you know, finding ways to get wins, and that’s going on some scoring bursts, that’s being able to rely on multiple players getting stops when needed, making adjustments and continuing to grow. I mean, this is a group that’s been resilient all season long.”
And if this is how the Fever can play when they still have ample room to grow, they can be dangerous coming into the final months of the season.
Indiana spent the first half of the season hovering around the .500 mark, never able to get more than one game above .500 until mid-July. Now, they’re four games above .500 for the first time since 2015 — when Kelsey Mitchell, the Fever’s longest-tenured player, was a sophomore in college.
It’s still been a remarkable turnaround for a team that hasn’t had its star, Caitlin Clark, for 15 games in different spurts. Clark has been out since July 15 with a right groin injury with no timetable for return, but the Fever have managed to find a rhythm without her on the court.
It’s a different style of play than with Clark, who can make any highlight-worthy pass look easy, but the midseason addition of Aari McDonald has helped the Fever maintain their priority of pushing the pace in transition. McDonald is able to see the floor, pick out the fastbreak opportunities, and either go for the shot herself or pinpoint her teammate for an assist.
Indiana had been dealing with injuries, personnel changes and a lack of consistency before McDonald was officially signed for the rest of the season on June 25. And she had been able to ground them, even through Clark’s injuries this season.
“She is our blessing in disguise,” Mitchell said. “We always tell her that we appreciate her seriously, because our season was all over the place. The people that was on the team, the people that wasn’t on the team, injury, (Clark) not being around this much with her injuries, and it takes a lot for a pro to step up, you know, be where her feet is, and fill in shoes that not a lot of people expect.”
This was the first game of a four-game road trip for the Fever, and it comes with a lot of opportunity. Indiana is just half a game behind Seattle and Phoenix — two teams they play on this trip — in the standings. Outside of moving up in the standings, a win over Phoenix would cement a crucial season series win for tiebreaker purposes. A win over Seattle would give Indiana the chance to take the season series when the Storm head to Indianapolis later this season.
And, if Indiana were to win out on this road trip and New York were to lose its next three games, the Fever could be as high as second place in the standings before they head back to Indianapolis.
Now, that situation is unlikely; New York is playing Connecticut, then Dallas twice, and it would be improbable the Liberty lose all three of those games.
But just the possibility the Fever could be as high as second in the standings is a noteworthy improvement from where they were even just a few weeks ago. And they still have room to improve.
Chloe Peterson is the Indiana Fever beat reporter for IndyStar. Reach her at [email protected] or follow her on X at @chloepeterson67. Get IndyStar’s Indiana Fever and Caitlin Clark coverage sent directly to your inbox with our Caitlin Clark Fever newsletter.
