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Kelsey Mitchell has become the perfect backcourt running mate with Caitlin Clark, and the two guards have led the Indiana Fever’s resurgence since the Olympic break. Now they have Indiana in the playoffs.
The team didn’t play Tuesday night, but it still clinched its first playoff appearance since 2016 by virtue of the Chicago Sky and Atlanta Dream losing their games. The Fever are sixth in the standings with seven games remaining and are now a mathematical lock to be among the eight teams that make the WNBA’s postseason. The seven-year playoff drought was the longest active streak in the league.
Indiana has won six of seven and is over .500 for the first time since June 13, 2019. The Fever, who improved to 17-16 with Sunday’s win over the Dallas Wings, had gone an WNBA-record 189 straight games without a winning record, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
Mitchell is one of the few players left on the roster from the Fever’s lean years; she arrived in 2018 and hadn’t won more than 13 games in any season until this year.
“I know what the bottom feels like, and I don’t want to be there no more,” Mitchell said,
Mitchell has scored more than 20 points in all seven games since the nearly monthlong break for the Paris Games. She’s averaging 28.3 points over that span—second best in the league behind A’ja Wilson. Overall, Mitchell is having her best season scoring, averaging 19 points. She was Indiana’s leading scorer last season, when she averaged 18.2 points per game.
“I think Kelsey has been playing really good basketball. She only makes my life easier when you have that 1-2 combo in the backcourt,” Clark said. “It’s lot of fun for myself to play that way. I think we’re just playing up-tempo.”
Mitchell agrees and has been having fun playing with Clark, who leads the league in assists with 8.4 a game.
“I think that me and Caitlin, as well as our group, I think we just found a way,” Mitchell said. “I think our pace is kind of setting us apart from a lot of different teams. Because you like to get the ball up and down the court at such a high pace. And I think the way that we play, it just makes our games thrive even more.”
The Fever have six consecutive home games on the schedule, starting Wednesday against the last-place Los Angeles Sparks before the regular-season finale at Washington.
The 2024 postseason will mark the franchise’s 14th playoff appearance. Indiana reached the playoffs 12 consecutive times from 2005 to 2016 and made its first postseason appearance in 2002.
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