Caitlin Clark and Indiana Fever cruise to defeat Chicago Sky in fourth meeting

CHICAGO — The first three games between the Indiana Fever and Chicago Sky were marked by a competitive nature, with the final margins a combined 10 points.

That wasn’t the case Friday in the teams’ fourth and final regular-season meeting, however, with Indiana (16-16) winning 100-81 to reach the .500 mark for the first time since May 2022, when they were just 2-2. Indiana’s streak of 103 consecutive games under .500 was the third-longest in WNBA history, according to Elias.

The Fever also secured victory in the season series against the Sky, 3-1.

Indiana has been one of the best teams in the league since the Olympic break, improving to 5-1 during that span. By reaching 100 points — a season-high in points — the Fever showed once again that they have the best offense in the league since mid-June.

Rookie sensation Caitlin Clark was mesmerizing with a career-high 31 points and 12 assists. She is the fifth player in WNBA history to record 30 points and 10 assists in a game, and the third to reach that stat line in regulation time.

Chicago, which held a Barbie Night in honor of rookie star Angel Reese, has now lost five straight games and six of its last seven in the second half. Michaela Onyenwere and Lindsay Allen led the Sky with 20 and 19 points, respectively.

Here are three key points from the match.

Feverish, red-hot attack shows no sign of slowing down

Indiana has the best offensive rating in the league since June 13, and Friday’s performance will only increase that number.

After a slow start and falling behind by 13 points, the Fever got into a rhythm with their bread and butter: pushing the pace and scoring from the 3-point line. Mitchell (23 points) led the charge with 18 points in the first half — her most in a half this season — but both she and Clark connected on 6 of 9 shots from 3 through the first 20 minutes. It was more of the same in the second half, with the Fever managing one of their best 3-point shooting nights of the season (13 of 29).

Clark will make headlines for her stellar performance, but the team also recognized the defensive contributions of Temi Fagbenle, who was a +29 substitute, team-leading Lexie Hull, who continued her recent shooting (3 of 4 from distance), and NaLyssa Smith, who scored 11 points in the third quarter to steady the Fever after foul trouble sent Boston to the bench.

Sky shift continues

The Sky had an early momentum on Friday, establishing an offensive flow that saw them build an early 24-11 lead. Coach Teresa Weatherspoon preached a next-man-up mentality going into the game with leading scorer Chennedy Carter (health and safety protocols) absent, and Allen and Onyenwere heeded the call, opening the game a combined 7-of-9 from the field and 3-of-3 from the 3-point arc. By halftime, with the Sky trailing by just five points, those two had combined for 28 of Chicago’s 42 points.

Late-game execution has been a sore point for the Sky in recent games, but Friday was more a case of the wheels crumbling as the game wore on. The Fever pulled within three at the end of the first, then won the middle two quarters by a combined 19 points. Even when Chicago was within single digits in the third quarter, it never felt like Indiana had truly lost control.

Since the season restarted, Weatherspoon has implored her team to be more disciplined defensively, to know the scout and execute. Allowing 100 points — the most the Sky have allowed this season — and letting the Fever get pretty much everything they want offensively was the opposite of that.

“We’ve got a lot of things we need to fix, and it starts on the defensive side of the ball,” Weatherspoon said. “We’re not disrupting the game. We’re letting teams shoot where they want, when they want.

“Defense is the hardest thing you can play in this game. In the third quarter, we sent them to the line time and time again.”

Guard Rachel Banham, who joined the team last month in the deal that sent then-leading scorer Marina Mabrey to Connecticut, didn’t hold back during the postgame press conference, saying, “We just lacked effort at times.”

“If you’re not motivated to get your ass spanked, we’ve got a problem,” she said. “Then don’t wear the uniform. You can feel this better in your chest.”

Chicago doesn’t have much time to get its act together as they have a tough road game coming up, playing Minnesota on Sunday and Las Vegas on Tuesday.

Playoff race gets more interesting

Don’t look too quickly – if the regular season were to end today, the Fever would clinch the sixth playoff seed, as they win the tiebreaker over Phoenix Mercury, which also recorded a 16-16 victory.

A lot can change in the next three weeks, but the idea of ​​the Fever reaching a sixth playoff finish seemed far-fetched when they entered 2024 with a 1-8 record.

Chicago (11-20), meanwhile, holds on to eighth place for good. It still holds a half-game lead over the Atlanta Dream, who play the two-time reigning champion Las Vegas Aces later on Friday.