By Madie Chandler | FeverBasketball.com
When it rains, it pours. And the Indiana Fever found themselves 32 games deep in a season of scattered thunderstorms on Saturday, prepared to host the Chicago Sky in the first contest of a three-game homestand.
After losing Caitlin Clark indefinitely earlier in the season, Indiana shifted the weighty point guard responsibilities to Sydney Colson and Aari McDonald. Colson and McDonald both sustained season-ending injuries in the Fever’s matchup with the Phoenix Mercury on Thursday.
“They’ve been an integral part of what we’ve been doing, and so [I] hate it for them,” coach Stephanie White said. “…We’ve got players in that locker room who believe in one another, players in that locker room who are as competitive as all get out. We’ve got versatility, and it’s going to have to be on full display. So I think now it’s about playing to honor them.”
Enter Chicago, a Saturday night marquee matchup between regional rivals decimated by injuries. The matchup marked an opportunity for the Fever to snap a two-game skid following a 4-game west coast road trip.
Indiana is resilient – the club battled for a 17-14 record entering Saturday’s matchup, recorded a five-game win streak that extended into early August, and earned a top-five offensive rating since the beginning of July – all without its franchise point guard.
Now the Fever attempt to sustain that level of play without any point guards.
Kelsey Mitchell and Aliyah Boston saw their team searching for consistency, watched as multiple teammates were sidelined by injuries, and picked up the weight of lofty expectations placed on a promising Fever squad in May. Mitchell, the longest tenured Fever player, and Boston, the WNBA’s 2023 Rookie of the Year, injected their grit into Saturday’s game, proving to their teammates and to the rest of Indiana that clear skies are ahead.
Both Mitchell and Boston elevated their intensity entering Saturday’s contest. Mitchell, typically an aggressive scorer, translated that aggression to her playmaking. Boston’s ascension wouldn’t be reflected in the box score, but her determination as Indiana’s offensive hub in the middle of the floor broke open the Fever’s attack.
“We’ve been utilizing AB to initiate offense throughout the course of the season, so we’ll continue to use her,” White said pregame. “…And you know, Kelsey can initiate offense too.”
Initiate, she did. Mitchell entered halftime with six assists – just one shy of her season-high mark of seven set against the Dallas Wings. Boston did her share of playmaking from the post as she notched three assists in the first half of play, and the two combined to score 22 of Indiana’s 48 points.
Boston’s 15 points, four rebounds, and three assists kept the Fever’s post presence formidable while Mitchell operated on the perimeter. Mitchell went on to finish the contest with 26 points to lead all scorers, and notched a game-high eight assists while recording just a single turnover. Indian rolled to a 92-70 win.
“Her decision making has been really good,” White said of Mitchell. “…We know that she’s going to create a lot of gravity because of what she does on the offensive end, and she did a really good job of picking her moments and finding her teammates when she needed to.”
Mitchell noted that she hadn’t played the point guard position since college, but liked the challenge.
“The leadership in which I need to keep getting better and keep growing at, I think being in this PG position kind of helps with that,” Mitchell said postgame.
Just two assists shy of a double-double for the second time this season, Mitchell continues to weaponize her playmaking talent in the absence of injured teammates. That energy is infectious, and it earned Indiana a 22-point victory, 92-70, over the Sky on Saturday.
“I think more than anything we’re playing for the girls that can’t be out here,” Lexie Hull said.
The Fever continue to play for one another, injured or healthy, as they chase the postseason.
“I’m proud of this group,” White said. “I think we’ve shown the whole season long, like they’re resilient, they’re connected. You know, they pull for each other, they enjoy one another, they celebrate one another. And you know that stuff alone is good for 10 to 12 points a game.
“…I’m proud of them in these moments, because it’s not always easy. I mean, this league is not easy. Their jobs, this job, it’s not easy. They go through a lot. But when you love who you come to work with every day, when it’s not about you and it’s about everybody else, and it’s about the whole, it makes it worth it. It makes going through the struggles worth it.”
