Fever close regular season before record WNBA crowd, to meet Sun in playoffs

With the No. 6 seed in the playoffs already locked up, the Indiana Fever rested their starters for most of their final regular-season game Thursday night in Washington, D.C., allowing the host Mystics to pull out a 92-91 victory before a crowd of 20,711, the largest in WNBA regular-season history.

The record attendance was made possible by the game being played at Capital One Arena, which is not the Mystics’ usual home. Washington plays at Entertainment & Sports Arena, which has a capacity of 4,200.

Much of the crowd was there to root on rookie Fever star Caitlin Clark, but Clark played only half the game and sat out the fourth quarter.

The Fever will next play the Connecticut Sun (28-12) at 3 p.m. Sunday at Mohegan Sun Arena in Montville, Connecticut, in the best-of-three first round of the playoffs. Connecticut landed the No. 3 playoff seeding by winning its Thursday night game over the Chicago Sun, 87-54.

Game 1 will air nationally on ABC. Game 2 will be Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. and broadcast by ESPN. If the teams split the first two games, Game 3 will be on Friday, Sept. 27, and air on ESPN2.

Sika Kone scored a career-high 20 points on Thursday night to lead the Mystics (14-26), who led by 16 points entering the fourth quarter. Washington began the night with a shot at the final playoff spot but that hope ended when the Atlanta Dream (15-25) won at New York to secure the No. 8 seed.

Ariel Atkins and Emily Engstler scored 17 points apiece for Washington while Brittney Sykes and Shatori Walker-Kimbrough both contributed 12.

Indiana (20-20) pulled its starters midway through the second half. Clark finished with eight points, eight assists and five rebounds in her 20 minutes. It was her first time under double figures in scoring since June 13.

Kelsey Mitchell had four points for the Fever and left the game after only five minutes with a leg injury. The Fever said Mitchell is expected to be fine for the playoffs.

Kristy Wallace led the Fever with 17 points. NaLyssa Smith had 16 points and Aliyah Boston and Katie Lou Samuelson both had 10.

Washington shot just 3-of-15 in the fourth quarter, but Indiana, with mostly reserves on the floor, missed three shots in the last minute after Wallace scored to make it 92-91 with 1:13 to play.

Samuelson missed with 7.7 seconds remaining and Grace Berger grabbed the offensive rebound but missed a short jumper at the buzzer.

The Fever jumped out to a 20-2 lead to start the game as Washington missed its first 10 shots. A three-point play from Kone at the 4:29 mark ended that run and Indiana’s lead was down to 24-22 by the time the quarter came to a close.

By halftime, the Mystics were on top 52-45 as they shot 60% from the field in the second quarter, mostly against Fever reserves.

Washington started the second half with a 12-4 run and extended the advantage to 82-66 through three quarters.

Although the Fever had clinched a playoff spot two weeks earlier, Mitchell played in her 233rd regular-season game before playing in a playoff game, tying Jia Perkins, who did that before getting into a 2011 playoff game.

Playoff picture

The WNBA playoffs are set with the Atlanta Dream getting the eighth seed on Thursday night.

The postseason begins Sunday with four best-of-three matchups. The Dream face the top-seeded New York Liberty. The Minnesota Lynx, the No. 2 seed, will host the No. 7 seed Phoenix Mercury while the No. 3 Connecticut Sun will welcome the No. 6 seed Indiana Fever.

The final opening round matchup is the two-time defending champion Las Vegas Aces, the No. 4 seed, hosting the fifth-seeded Seattle Storm.

Las Vegas is trying to become the first team to win three titles in a row since Houston won four straight in the first four seasons of the WNBA—from 1997 to 2000.

The better seeded team will host the first two games of the series with a potential decisive third game to be played at the site of the lower seeded squad.

Three of the eight playoff positions came down to the final day of the regular season.

Atlanta needed a victory to clinch the final playoff spot and the Dream did just that by beating New York 78-67. The Liberty had already clinched the top seed.