Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever escaped back-to-back home losses in the thrilling 104-100 win.
INDIANAPOLIS — The deficit for the Indiana Fever in the third quarter Sunday afternoon, and the void on the court vacuuming the team in, continued to balloon in size. The Fever trailed by an okay four points at halftime. Four minutes after the break, four turned to 16: the largest lead of the afternoon for the playoff-seeking Atlanta Dream. Caitlin Clark, once more, looked rattled.
It wasn’t at all dramatic, but Clark put her hands out after traveling in the first quarter and talked with the refs. In another instance, Clark motioned to the refs after an official timeout, seemingly about the lack of reach-in calls she wasn’t benefitting from. Around 45 seconds before halftime, Clark talked with head coach Christie Sides, and based on the looks of it, she didn’t seem pleased.
The Fever turned the ball over 12 times in the first half. Atlanta did so once.
“I thought a lot of (turnovers) definitely were unforced,” Clark said afterward. “Whether it was dribbling off a leg, a backcourt violation (two minutes before half), which was not a backcourt violation, you all saw it. I don’t understand. I don’t know. But that’s not a backcourt violation.”
After Jordin Canada’s jumper at the buzzer put Atlanta up by four, Clark untucked her uniform and urgently headed for the locker room. None of her teammates were in proximity going into the tunnel — that’s how fast it was. She had six points with six turnovers. The emotion never ceased–that’s the fiery player Clark is. But she later regulated it in an overtime 104-100 win.
“I simply thought it was a bad half,” Clark said of her emotions in the tunnel. “That’s all I got.”
Clark began the fourth quarter by sticking her 24-foot 3-pointer, which tied it up. And on the Fever’s next possession, Clark heat-checked from 30 feet, missed it, and flung her arms to the sides while turning her body. Clark did assist teammate Kelsey Mitchell in transition on the next play. But the Dream led by nine with six minutes to go. Rhyne Howard ended with 36 points.
Aliyah Boston, Lexie Hull and Mitchell brought it back. Atlanta didn’t convert on both potential game-winning shots with under 20 seconds to go, forcing overtime. Howard was denied any good look. It had all been building up with Clark: the talks with the refs, the speed walk into the tunnel, flinging arms. In overtime, Clark had two assists and iced the win with four free throws.
It didn’t mean she stopped forcing an occasional shot or two, but she stayed in tune with the atmosphere.
Tied with 27 seconds in the fourth, Clark passed on an open triple, for what turned into an even more open Boston drive and lay-in. The defenders for Clark and Boston were on their toes so much to double-team Clark on the arc, that Boston was able to drive with ease. That was the last basket before overtime.
Aliyah Boston posts career afternoon to lift Fever to win
Boston’s hook basket in OT gave the second-year forward 30 points on the afternoon, which put the Fever up 100-98 and cemented the foundation for the comeback win. Thirty is Boston’s career-best, and she added 13 rebounds. Since the Olympic break, the Fever’s 2023 No. 1 pick has been tasked to match up with plenty of opposing veteran forwards. Regardless of some discontent with offensive statlines at times post-break, which Sides has mentioned, Boston has repeatedly hung tough.
The Fever are now 8-2 in that span since the Olympic break.
“I just tell myself to dominate,” Boston said. “I know that I’m equipped. For me, if I go into a game thinking, oh my gosh, they have experience over me. Oh my gosh, this happened last game, then I’m already down… I feel like (Atlanta forward) Tina Charles, every single time she’s played me, she’s had 20 on my head. But that’s okay! … I try my hardest and we come out with a win!”
Fever avoid bad trend, show resilience in second half and overtime
In order: the Fever barely scraped past the last-place Los Angeles Sparks last Wednesday after clinching the playoffs. Then on Friday night, they were outscored 29-12 in the third quarter by the Minnesota Lynx in an eventual 99-88 loss. Caitlin Clark admitted she needed to better control her emotions, Sides said she needed her All-Star guard to stay level, and Mitchell frankly said they must hold each other accountable to shut up and work, leave the officials out of it, and turn the next page.
Before Sunday’s win over Atlanta, Sides was asked if she had time to sit down and talk with Clark about regulating emotions in real-time. Sides said it doesn’t just pertain to Clark, but to everyone on the team too about handling emotional stability. Minnesota has that. Indiana does not. Sides admitted it. The third quarter near-implosion Sunday almost proved that once more.
But they didn’t let it overwhelm them. They just swept Atlanta 4-0 in the regular season. And to be clear, the Dream are not by any means near Minnesota’s caliber. But the Fever do get credit. And this was their first overtime situation this season.
“I think you saw a different team out there,” Sides said. “There were a lot of moments where they could’ve got really angry, let little things bother them, some calls, no calls. But I think they did a much better job of handling their emotions, not letting them get too upset of things that — just next-play mentality… that’s what they had… once we got going.”
“That wasn’t early,” Sides said, smiling.
The Fever hold the six seed in the playoffs by 3½ games, with four games to play.
They’ll host the Las Vegas Aces Wednesday night.
