The Indiana Fever and the Atlanta Dream are both showing signs of rounding into playoff form as the regular season winds down.
The Fever (22-12) have won their past three games, and the Dream (21-12) have won three of their last four, each win coming by double figures. Fourth-place Indiana visits fifth-place Atlanta on Sunday.
Caitlin Clark has been the driving force in the Fever winning 10 of their last 13 games. She had 29 points and 10 assists in a 98-87 victory over visiting Dallas on Friday night.
“She’s like a maestro, the way that she runs our offense,” Indiana coach Stephanie White said of Clark. “I think when we’re at our best, she is instructing, she is running it much like a show, and it’s tough to match up with us when she’s commanding the floor like that.”
Clark suggested the Fever still have room for improvement after trailing by three points entering the fourth quarter and winning the final period 35-21 to shake off the short-handed Wings.
“We just pushed through and pushed through and pushed through,” Clark said. “It felt like we were just waiting for the moment to unleash, and I felt like that’s what we got in the fourth quarter.”
The Dream had their largest margin of victory of the season in a 104-69 win at Connecticut on Thursday.
“I think we’re definitely finding (a higher gear),” forward Naz Hillmon said. “I think that there have been spurts for us throughout this season where we’ve kind of seen it, and then sometimes we take a couple of steps back.”
Atlanta held the Sun to 30 percent shooting, the lowest of its opponents this season.
“Defense gives us the confidence to get easy looks after (the opponent’s) turnovers and mistakes,” said Rhyne Howard, who had 29 points.
The Dream have won two of the three previous meetings with the Fever this season. Indiana won 83-71 at home on June 4 and Atlanta won 108-101 on the road on June 18 and 113-96 at home two days later.
The Dream can move past the Fever into fourth place by winning Sunday.
“This is a big game,” Atlanta head coach Karl Smesko said. “Indiana’s playing pretty well and we’re playing pretty well too.”
–Field Level Media
