Before the season began, multiple players from the Indiana Fever were asked for projections, goals, and outlooks of the upcoming 2024 campaign during Media Day interviews.
Each one including head coach Christie Sides answered in the same fashion.
Playoffs.
While they’ve made history and set league-wide records throughout, the biggest box was checked earlier this week. Indiana clinched a playoff spot due to some help from the Las Vegas Aces and Phoenix Mercury’s wins on Tuesday night.
But despite ensuring their season extends into October, Indiana has no plans of becoming complacent:
“We’re not done yet. Our goal was to make the playoffs and we’ve done that. We’ve got six games remaining. I had someone tell me today, we don’t have anything to prove. We just have to improve.”
-Indiana Fever HC Christie Sides after the team’s 93-86 win over the Los Angeles Sparks
Indiana currently sits at sixth overall in the playoff standings. They trail the Seattle Storm by two and a half games. The team also has a single-game edge over Phoenix who is at seventh.
Sitting at 7-2 since the Olympic break alongside an offense that is the fourth hottest at the moment, the short and long-term projections of Indiana’s future haven’t been brighter after now ending a playoff drought dating back to 2016.
WE'RE IN.
— Indiana Fever (@IndianaFever) September 4, 2024
we have officially clinched a spot in the 2024 @WNBA playoffs 🔥
📝 https://t.co/lmq97tihkJ pic.twitter.com/xK8Tg9izY4
From a collective sense, they’ve provided fans with plenty to be hopeful for. Individually, their stars have shined bright as of late. Sides was named WNBA Coach of the Month, the first in franchise history. At the same time, Caitlin Clark racked up Eastern Conference Player of the Month, Rookie of the Month, and Conference Player of the Week awards as well.
Clark and the Fever’s Growth
Throughout August, Clark averaged 24 points per game (PPG), 8.5 assists per game, and 5.2 rebounds per game. As for Kelsey Mitchell, she leads the team with 19.1 ppg as Aliyah Boston notched her 12th double-double this season. Boston had 24 points with 10 boards in the Fever’s win over Los Angeles.
As they continue to iron out their offense, however, Clark notes that they could only turn the corner once the cohesion as a unit came together:
“Coming in here, this organization hasn’t been to the playoffs since 2016 and that was my main goal and I felt like once I got comfortable and we were playing the style of basketball we wanted to play which was up-tempo, playing off one another, setting my teammates up for success. … it’s been smooth sailing, fun basketball since then”.
Following their latest win against Los Angeles, Boston touched on the fact that just because they’ve made the playoffs doesn’t mean they won’t stop looking for ways to improve before the postseason:
“I think over the course of the season, it’s about making sure we can close out games. There are some games that we lost in the beginning of the season because our fourth quarter wasn’t great so even going into tonight’s game, we just emphasized that, ‘Listen it’s the fourth quarter. 10 more minutes. We have to give it our all.’ We knew they weren’t just going to lay down and let us take the game.”
Indiana has five games remaining on their schedule including their next four straight at home. The Fever came up short at home against the Minnesota Lynx 99-88 on Friday. Clark scored 24 points, going 5-10 from three-point range in the loss. Mitchell had 23 points as Boston put up 20 for the Fever.
Follow Beyond Women’s Sports for more from the world of sports.
