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    • In the play-offs for the first time since 2016, Fever ready for Sun challenge
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    In the play-offs for the first time since 2016, Fever ready for Sun challenge

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    WASHINGTON, DC — Starting Friday, Indiana Fever will stay in a Connecticut casino for nearly an entire week.

    The Sun officially clinched third place with a win over the Chicago Sky on Thursday, and the Fever were prepared for the trip. They’ll head straight from Washington, D.C., the site of their final regular-season game against the Mystics, to Uncasville, Connecticut, home of the Sun.

    It had been expected for almost a week that Fever and Sun would play each other in the first round, but it only became official on Thursday evening, almost at the last minute.

    More: Kelsey Mitchell fears injury: ‘Nothing serious’. Fever expects top scorer for play-offs.

    More: WNBA team owner slams Caitlin Clark fans as ‘racist, sexist and violent’ with words

    Now, in a full-circle moment, the Fever will take on the Sun at Mohegan Sun Arena in a best-of-three series. Indiana also opened its season in Connecticut, in the first game of the Caitlin Clark era for the Fever.

    Connecticut will host the first two games — and it will have a chance to win at home if it wins both. If Indiana manages to win either game in Connecticut, it will take the series back to Indianapolis for a decisive Game 3.

    The first game starts on Sunday at 3:00 p.m. (ABC) and the second is on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. (ESPN).

    “It’s going to be a grind,” Fever guard Kelsey Mitchell told IndyStar. “Their veteran leadership, they’re All-Stars, Olympians, it’s a great group that we’re going up against. And I think we’ve got to do our best. Hopefully we’re prepared for that, but we’re going to compete.”

    This Connecticut Sun team, with much the same core, reached the WNBA Finals two years ago. That same season in 2022, the Fever won five games.

    Now, the much-improved Fever have two straight No. 1 picks and are a big upgrade, but they still lack playoff experience.

    “I don’t have any starters that have ever played in a playoff game, none,” coach Christie Sides said. “I have four in the locker room that have played minutes and in the playoffs, but we’re trying to figure out what (the starters) need. We’re just trying to figure out what they need so they’re ready to go on Sunday.”

    Mitchell is the more experienced starter, but this is the seven-year veteran’s first time in the playoffs. Both NaLyssa Smith and Lexie Hull are in their third years with the team (they entered the season with five wins), Aliyah Boston is in her second year, and Clark is the record-setting rookie.

    On the other side, Connecticut has Alyssa Thomas, the 2023 MVP runner-up who led the Sun to the finals in 2022. Thomas also won a gold medal with Team USA at the Paris Olympics. The Sun also has DeWanna Bonner, who won a championship in Phoenix in 2014 and was with Connecticut during the 2022 run. Brionna Jones and DiJonai Carrington both came off the bench during that run and have now found their way into the starting lineup as defensive powerhouses.

    Indiana went 1-3 against the Sun this season, with two of those losses coming by double digits at Mohegan Sun Arena. Their most recent meeting, however, was a Fever win in August after the Olympic break. It was a sign of a growing Fever team, one that clicked after working together a lot during the four-week break.

    Still, the Sun are a formidable opponent. But regardless of who the Fever faced in the first round of the playoffs, they knew it would be a challenge.

    And they are prepared for it.

    “I think it’s going to be good for us,” Smith said. “Of course, it’s going to be a challenge, but it’s not a challenge that we haven’t seen before. And I feel like we’re ready for it.”

    Follow IndyStar Fever Insider Chloe Peterson on X at @chloepeterson67.

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