INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Fever received their second recreation of the season, taking down the Chicago Sky, 71-70, Saturday afternoon for his or her first win at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
It was additionally the primary win of the Commissioner’s Cup — the WNBA’s in-season event.
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Listed below are three observations:
Fever choose up second win of the season
With simply over a minute left within the recreation, Indiana led, 71-67. It was an analogous scenario for the Fever — they led late in opposition to Connecticut and Seattle earlier within the season, however each resulted in shut losses.
This time, it was completely different. With a late foul from NaLyssa Smith with the Fever up two factors, Sky guard Marina Mabrey went 1-of-2 from the road. The Fever held on for a one-point victory.
It is apparent the Fever have had a gauntlet of a schedule — 11 video games in 20 days to start out the season, taking part in each different day (twice on back-to-back days), and 5 of the primary seven video games on the street.
The final time a staff began the season with 11 video games in 20 days was the Washington Mystics in 2011, and so they went 1-10 in that span. With the win over the Sky on Saturday afternoon, the Fever formally beat that quantity. Indiana is now 2-8 going into its eleventh recreation of the season Sunday in opposition to the New York Liberty.
Clearly, a 2-8 document is not one thing to have fun. However a win in opposition to the Sky is an indication of enchancment for the younger staff.
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Protection retains Fever in recreation
Simply two days after atrocious, third-quarter protection induced the Fever a loss to Seattle, Indiana cleaned up its recreation. And it helped them keep shut in instances when their offense wasn’t clicking.
Indiana obtained off to a scorching begin on offense, scoring 17 factors within the first seven minutes of the sport. Then, the Fever went scoreless all through the ultimate three minutes when the primary subs got here into the sport. Indiana nonetheless led on the finish of the primary quarter, 17-14, due to protection — it held Chicago to 7-of-22 capturing within the first 10 minutes.
The Fever’s protection additionally helped them by a four-minute scoring drought within the second quarter. Chicago might solely get a five-point benefit in that point, and Kelsey Mitchell erased that with a 3-pointer and fastbreak layup as soon as the Fever obtained out of their scoring funk.
Caitlin Clark performs almost all recreation, regardless of harm
Fever rookie Caitlin Clark sat for six minutes of Indiana’s recreation in opposition to Los Angeles on Tuesday evening, and 4 of them got here close to the tip of the third quarter. Throughout that third-quarter stretch Clark was on the bench, the Sparks went on an 11-0 run, in the end profitable the sport by six factors.
Since then, Clark hasn’t had any non-injury relaxation on the bench. She performed all however six seconds in Indiana’s loss to Seattle on Thursday evening, regardless of the Fever trailing by 15-20 factors within the closing minutes of the fourth quarter.
Clark was on monitor to play all the recreation Saturday afternoon till she appeared to tweak her ankle within the third quarter. She drew some contact on a drive by the baseline, falling arduous to the bottom and sitting for a couple of seconds. She limped to the sideline, testing of the sport for the primary time.
Nonetheless, she returned 4 minutes of recreation time later. Clark continued to take elevated physicality from the Sky, together with an occasion when Chennedy Carter pushed her down whereas she was ready for an inbound after a Sky basket. Carter was known as for an away from the ball foul, which resulted in a Fever free throw and possession.
What number of factors did Caitlin Clark rating?
Clark scored 11 factors to associate with eight rebounds and 6 assists. She hit her first 3-point makes an attempt of the sport however completed 2-of-9 from behind the arc and 4-of-11 total.
In keeping with ESPN Stats and Information, Clark is the third participant in league historical past to have 150 factors, 50 rebounds, and 50 assists within the first 10 video games of a season.