By Lindsay Burke
The Indiana Fever came into Tuesday night’s match up with the Los Angeles Sparks winners of five straight games. Despite knowing the Sparks’ struggles when playing at home this season, The Fever were faced with a tall task. The Sparks like to play tall and fast – things the Fever have had struggles with in slowing down for much of the year.
The Sparks led by as much as 13 at halftime. The Fever just couldn’t get any consistent rhythm going. The Sparks got multiple stops on the defensive end behind Cameron Brink’s solid protection of the rim. She tied her career high with five blocks on the Fever. Kelsey Mitchell was the Fever’s solid offensive piece finishing with 34 points on seven three-point shots made. This performance by Mitchell shouldn’t surprise anyone. After all, she has been the Fever’s most consistent player for most of the season. She also hit her 4,500th career point Tuesday night.
Deep into the fourth quarter, the Fever closed the gap on the Sparks going on an 20-11 run and coming within six points, but time just ran out on them. They struggled in the paint slowing and couldn’t seem to completely shut down the Sparks’ drives. The Fever aren’t quite used to seeing the fast tempo that Los Angeles likes to run which was evident in their first two meetings.
Playoff Hopes are Still Very Much Alive
The loss knocked the Fever to a 17-13 record, but didn’t have an immediate impact on their spot in the standings. In beating Seattle on Sunday, they hold the tiebreaker over them. The Fever currently hold the fifth spot in the standings with the top eight teams clinching the playoffs. There’s still a month left in the regular season, so a lot can still happen. Head coach Stephanie White has her team playing some of their best basketball, but their most recent loss showed some holes in many areas. It very well can be due to travel fatigue as the Fever have been on the road for the last week.
They’re eager to get home to Indianapolis playing in front of their home crowd again. Every game remaining the rest of the way is equally important. A week ago they found themselves going back and forth between sixth and seventh place. No one would have thought that the Fever would be sitting in a fifth place position having been without their top player, Caitlin Clark. Her timetable for return is still very much unclear, although it’s possible she can be activated at the end of August. But if the Fever continue to play well and put some wins together, there shouldn’t be any reason to rush her back in risk of jeopardizing her health.
The Fever return to action Thursday night to wrap up their road trip against the Phoenix Mercury at 10 p.m. EST.