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Indiana Fever, Caitlin Clark loses final season of Mystics

Vaseline September 20, 2024

WASHINGTON, DC — The Indiana Fever, who played most of the game with reserves, lost their final game of the regular season 92-91 to the Washington Mystics on Thursday night.

The game ultimately didn’t matter to the Fever, who finished the season at 20-20. They’ll be the No. 6 seed in the playoffs and will face Connecticut. The Sun secured the No. 3 seed with a win over Chicago on Thursday night.

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

Here are three observations:

Kelsey Mitchell sits on the bench after scare in first quarter

The outcome of the Fever-Washington game ultimately didn’t matter to Indiana’s seeding. The Fever would have been locked into the No. 6 seed anyway. So, Christie Sides said before the game that the coaching staff would be cautious about starting minutes. And that came into play almost immediately.

Leading scorer Kelsey Mitchell fell under the basket after colliding with a Mystics player midway through the first quarter and was slow to get up. Although she was able to get up and down the court, she limped with her left leg. At one point, during an offensive possession, she tried to shake her left leg free.

She checked out on the next dead ball and went back to the locker room with athletic trainers. She quickly returned to the bench in the second quarter and briefly wore a knee brace on her left knee, but she didn’t wear it long.

Mitchell appeared to remain on the bench for the rest of the game as a precaution, jumping up with the rest of the bench after big baskets, running to her teammates during timeouts and warming up for the second half as normal.

According to Scott Agness, player development coach Jhared Simpson said on the broadcast, “Oh, she’s fine. She’s a fighter. She’s on the bench.”

The other four Fever starters each played about 20 minutes.

Defense is lacking in the middle quarter

Indiana’s defense held Washington to four points through the first six minutes of Thursday night’s game. The next 14 minutes? The Mystics scored 48. Yes, this game doesn’t matter to the Fever, and the reserves ended up playing most of the game. But that defensive effort, especially with Connecticut looming, probably isn’t what the coaching staff wanted as the playoffs approach.

Washington, a team coming into this game fighting for the eighth and final playoff spot, scored 30 points in the second quarter. Then another 30 points in the third. The Mystics are the ninth best scoring team in the league, averaging just 79 points per game. They surpassed that before the third quarter ended.

To the Fever’s credit, they cleaned up the defense in the fourth quarter, allowing seven points in the first five minutes. At the same time, the Indiana reserves rallied from a 15-point deficit to pull within one point with a minute left.

Sides has emphasized defense all season after Indiana finished the 2023 season second-to-last in defensive rating. From a statistical perspective, Indiana hasn’t necessarily improved — the Fever still rank 11th in the league this season with a 106.3 defensive rating.

But with an improved offense, the Fever have made the defensive imperatives work, going from 13-27 in 2023 to a 20-20 playoff team with similar defensive efforts year after year.

Grace Berger and Victaria Saxton get important minutes

To give her core players some rest, Christie Sides cleared her bench early on Thursday evening.

Kristy Wallace, who has played sparingly since leaving the starting lineup in late June, entered the game in the second quarter and played more than half the game, going 6 of 8 for 17 points in her extended time on the court and contributing a number of clutch defensive plays.

Grace Berger, a 2023 All-Rookie selection, hasn’t played much this season, but she entered the game in the third quarter and played the entire fourth. She finished with two points, one assist and two rebounds and was a +15.

Victaria Saxton has also played in just eight games this season, all in garbage time. She entered the game with 5 minutes left in the fourth quarter on Thursday and made a layup and a 3-pointer in quick succession.

How many points did Caitlin Clark score?

The surefire Rookie of the Year finished the regular season with 8 points, 8 assists and 5 rebounds. She was substituted midway through the third quarter and did not return.