The Indiana Fever are fighting for their playoff lives over the final couple weeks of the WNBA regular season, and they earned a much-needed win Wednesday night against one of the league's top teams.
The Fever led 51-42 at halftime and staved off a strong comeback attempt by the Sun to seal a 84-80 victory at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Fever rookie Caitlin Clark scored 19 points and made her 86th 3-pointer of the season, which set a new league record for the most by a rookie.
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Indiana now has a 15-16 record as the No. 7 seed in the playoff race. The Fever have a just three-game lead over the eighth-seed Chicago Sky.
The Sun weren't able to clinch a season series sweep over the Fever, but they did win three of the four matchups overall. This loss drops the Sun to 22-8 and into a tie with the Minnesota Lynx for the second-best record in the league.
If the season ended today, the Sun and Fever would meet in the first round of the 2024 WNBA playoffs.
The Sun would be favored to win that series. They have a better and deeper roster than the Fever. But as the Fever showed Wednesday night, they can be tough to beat when the 3-pointers are falling. Indiana shot 13-of-30 (43.3 percent) from 3-point range despite Clark hitting just three of her 12 attempts.
The Fever are also getting hot at the perfect time with a 7-3 record in their last 10 games.
The Sun will be back in action this weekend when they play at the Washington Mystics on Saturday and then return home for a Sunday matchup versus the Seattle Storm.
