Sports stats



WNBA Indiana Fever

Fever Hold Heads High After Historic, Successful Season

September 26, 2024 - Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA)
Indiana Fever News Release


On the path to a WNBA championship, there's no skipping steps.

Indiana Fever players and coaches firmly believe in that mantra, which is why they kept their heads held high after getting eliminated from the playoffs on Wednesday night in Connecticut.

Since before the opening tip of the 2024 season, the Fever have operated under a microscope unlike anything seen in women's professional basketball.

No. 1 overall draft pick Caitlin Clark brought attention, expectations, and excitement to the Fever not felt nor seen since the days when Tamika Catchings and Katie Douglas had the franchise competing for titles, and her massive popularity put a spotlight on the sport never seen before.

Pairing Clark with former No. 1 overall pick and 2023 Rookie of the Year Aliyah Boston, All-Star guard Kesley Mitchell, and a slew of young talent sounded like an instant recipe for success for many. However, adversity and growth came first before the wins.

Indiana faced a historically difficult schedule to begin their 2024 campaign, playing 10 games in their first three weeks - including seven games in 12 days - with a majority of those contests going up against 2023 playoff teams.

In addition, almost every arena they played in was sold out, with fans flocking from across the world to see the most popular team and player in the league, creating playoff-like environments.

While the Fever navigated the roster changes and unprecedented attention, the team opened the season with a 1-8 record.

Instead of lamenting the losses, however, the Fever learned from those experiences and used them to turn their season around, using an 8-2 record out of the Olympic break in July to finish 20-20 overall and earn a playoff berth for the first time since 2016.

Clark emerged as the superstar Rookie of the Year everyone expected, breaking almost every rookie record in the book and leading the league in assists, while Boston again proved one of the most dominant centers in the league, Mitchell took her scoring to another level, and the rest of the roster continued to develop and compliment their stars.

In the postseason, the Fever ran into one of the most dominant Connecticut rosters in the franchise's history.

"It's a good little taste of what's possible for this organization and for this franchise," Clark said. "There's a lot for us to hold our heads high about, you know. This team won five games two years ago. We're a young group, a pretty inexperienced group, but we came together and had a lot of fun playing with one another. That's sometimes the worst part of it is like you feel like you're really playing your best basketball, and then it has to end. But like I said, proud of this group. Stayed resilient all year and had a lot of fun together."

While their series wound up being just two games, the Fever showed the resilience Clark mentioned from the regular season in the playoffs.

After the third-seeded Sun walloped the Fever 93-69 in Game 1, Indiana had Connecticut at the brink in Game 2, pushing a team with over 200 more playoff games of experience to the final buzzer.

In an up-and-down game, and after trading clutch baskets in the fourth quarter, the Fever led by two points with 2:05 left in regulation. The Sun's experience then took over, as back-to-back made 3-pointers - including one with 45 seconds left by Marina Mabrey - ultimately put the game away for the Sun in an 87-81 win.

The Fever gave the Sun their well-deserved praise after the game, but emphasized this year was a step toward the ultimate goal of bringing another title to Indianapolis.

Boston called the 12-woman roster in the 2024 special and talked more about the future than the past after the final loss to the Sun.

"I think when you look at basketball as a whole, and when you look at where you start to where you are now, it's about stepping stones," Boston said. "I think in two seasons, we've made the right steps to go forward, and I'm excited for what the future holds...We're on the rise, and I think it's important to keep that as the focus because obviously you're not just going to come in and win a championship.

"There's so many franchises here that had to build," Boston continued. "They had number one picks after number one picks after number one picks and then they won championships. I think everyone is just so in the rush for a ring in this moment, and obviously we would all love that, because that's what everyone competes for every single day, especially just being a competitor. But I think just looking at where we are, we're in the right steps."

All season long, Indiana's slogan was Fever Rising. Looking ahead, there's no reason to believe they won't continue to do so.

Check out the Indiana Fever Statistics

• Discuss this story on the Women's National Basketball Association message board...

Women's National Basketball Association Stories from September 26, 2024


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central