The Indiana Fever are figuring out how to win without Caitlin Clark.
The Fever (8-8) have won their last two games without their star guard — winning road games against Dallas (to reach the Commissioner’s Cup championship game) and at Minnesota 74-59 on Tuesday to win the title.
They will again be without Clark, who has missed three consecutive games because of a left groin injury and was ruled out for this one, when they begin a five-game homestand by hosting the Las Vegas Aces on Thursday night.
“We have a resilient group,” Indiana coach Stephanie White said. “They’re tough, mentally and physically. They pull for one another. We’re going to continue to get better.”
The Fever lost three of five games when Clark was sidelined by a quad injury earlier in the season.
“Caitlin is a player who has a high usage rate, has the ball in her hands a lot,” White said. “Learning to play without her, learning to make big plays in tough moments on both ends of the floor is important.”
That effectiveness on both ends of the floor was evident against the Lynx.
Natasha Howard (16 points, 12 rebounds) and Aliyah Boston (12 points, 11 rebounds) both had double-doubles, and the Fever took control by holding Minnesota scoreless for the final 8:13 of the second quarter.
The Aces (8-8) haven’t played since an 84-81 win at Phoenix on Sunday, which started a five-game road trip. They have been playing without center Megan Gustafson (lower left leg injury) and forward Cheyenne Parker-Tyus (pregnancy).
To try to strengthen their frontcourt, the Aces sent a first-round pick in the 2027 WNBA Draft to Dallas for 6-foot-4 forward NaLyssa Smith, who is averaging 6.7 points and 4.9 rebounds.
The average performance thus far is a new experience for Las Vegas, which won back-to-back titles in 2022 and 2023 and made one other trip to the finals and three to the semifinals in the last six seasons.
“I kind of take this season as a very big learning season for all of us because we spoiled a lot of people with our greatness and right now we’re just not great and that’s OK,” three-time MVP A’ja Wilson said. “It’s not the end of the world.
“This is adversity to me because I’ve never been in this situation. We’ve got to learn to dig out wins. We have to learn to play with our backs against the wall, but still prevail.”
Fever reserve forward Damiris Dantas will also miss the game due to a Brazilian national team obligation.
–Field Level Media
