The Indiana Fever recovered from their most lopsided loss of the season with a win to open Commissioner’s Cup play on Thursday.
Facing the Angel Reese-led version of the Atlanta Dream for the first time, Indiana won 83-71 in a big night for Kelsey Mitchell and a persistent night for Caitlin Clark, whom the Prime Video stream reported was vomiting shortly before the second half began.
The reason for Clark’s sickness is currently unclear, but it didn’t stop her from showing up in the third quarter. After a slow first half, Clark helped build a double-digit lead for the home team, while also playing some of her best defense of the season.
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She finished the game with 17 points on 6-of-17 shooting, 8 assists and 7 rebounds..
Mitchell was the other featured player of that push, and finished with 25 points on 11-of-15 shooting. She reached a career milestone of 5,000 points as well, while continuing the WNBA’s third-longest streak of games with double-digit scoring.
Aliyah Boston also had a strong showing with 19 points, 7 rebounds, 3 blocks and 2 assists.
The Fever entered the game on their back foot after back-to-back losses to the Golden State Valkyries and Portland Fire, the latter of which saw them outscored by 16 points in a particular rough game for Clark. With their record at 4-4 entering Thursday and Commissioner’s Cup play beginning against the East-leading Dream, Indiana needed a reset.
They got that courtesy of their big 3, along with a strong defensive effort overall. It was the fewest points the Fever have allowed all season and the fewest points the Dream have scored all season. No player on the Dream scored more than 13 points, and they shot 34.8% from the field collectively.
Reese had 11 points on 4-of-9 shooting and 10 rebounds. That was enough to become the fastest player in Dream history to reach 100 points and 100 rebounds.
