The Indiana Fever and rookie sensation Caitlin Clark host the Atlanta Dream on Sunday, September 8, 2024, at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
Fans can watch the game with a subscription on Sling TVand get half off the first month.
What you need to know:
What: WNBA regular season
WHO: Atlanta Dream vs. Indiana Fever
When: 8 September 2024 (6.9.24)
Where: Gainbridge Field House
Time: 4:00 p.m. ET
TV: ESPN3
Station finder: Verizon Fios, DirectTV Stream, Comcast Xfinity, Spectrum/Charter, Optimum/Altice, Helmsman, DIRECTV, Court, Hulu, fuboTV, loop.
Live stream: Sling TV
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Here is a WNBA story from the Associated Press:
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana Fever coach Christie Sides slept through her team’s historic, defining moment Tuesday night. Rookie guard Caitlin Clark watched the decisive play and then went to bed.
For the WNBA’s most successful team, a seven-year playoff drought ended a little, well, abruptly on a night when it didn’t play.
On Wednesday morning, the Fever’s world changed. The team that had suffered seven straight losing seasons, won just 30 games in the last four years and started this season 1-8, was the darling of Indianapolis.
“I usually go to bed at 9:30 or 10 p.m. every night, but I set my alarm for midnight to wake up and then just turned it off. I didn’t even check,” Sides said. “Then this morning I woke up to some really great text messages.”
Losses to Chicago and Atlanta qualified the Fever for the postseason for the first time since Tamika Catchings retired in 2016, although Sides would have liked only one of those teams to win so the Fever could claim victory on their home court in front of another nearly sold-out stadium.
Still, no one was particularly upset, and fans had plenty to celebrate on Wednesday night when Indiana beat Los Angeles 93-86, thanks to a triple-double from Clark, who also became the fastest player in WNBA history to make 100 three-pointers in a season (she currently has 102).
During the pregame warm-up, everyone was smiling – Clark, the former Iowa star who has taken women’s basketball to unprecedented heights; Kelsey Mitchell, a seven-year veteran who is finally getting his first taste of the basketball playoffs; and, most of all, Sides, who was named WNBA Coach of the Month for the Fever on Wednesday.
Although this was the goal from the moment Indiana selected Clark with the No. 1 pick in the draft, it was never a given.
“Cool for sure,” Clark said. who won the league’s monthly awards Player and Rookie of the Month. “For us, it doesn’t even have to be the home stretch, and I think that’s something special. You can just relax, play basketball and have a lot of fun. Yes, we did that, but there is so much more that can be done.”
Clark is not the only one who recognizes what is possible.
Guard Erica Wheeler played in four playoff games in her first two WNBA seasons and needed eight more to get back into the playoffs. That was so long ago, the playoff format has changed, and so has her role – she plays behind Clark.
But as one of four Fever players with postseason experience, she can bring some important perspective.
“The work is not done yet,” Wheeler said. “We still have six, seven games left and we can’t think that far ahead. As an experienced player, I know that very well. So for me, it’s not time to think about the playoffs. There are still seven games left.”
Just three months ago, the postseason seemed unlikely.
A brutal early schedule and the fact that Clark began her professional career just five weeks after completing a 39-game college schedule contributed to Indiana’s early struggles. The Olympic break gave Clark a much-needed breather and the young team time to find its feet.
Since June 1, Indiana is 17-8 with wins over each of the league’s top three teams — New York, Minnesota and Connecticut — and a three-game season sweep of Phoenix. All while ending the league’s longest consecutive losing streak at 189 games.
“We were able to pull ourselves together and they focused on the things we always talked about – developing good habits, relentless effort, unity and toughness,” Sides said. “We focused on those things and that was the most important thing.”
It didn’t hurt to have Clark there either.
Clark continues to be the league’s star attraction, regularly drawing sold-out stadiums and large national television audiences. Business Insider recently reported that ticket prices on the secondary market have nearly doubled this year compared to last year – before the Olympic break.
Indiana also leads the league in home, away and total attendance, and the Fever have appeared in each of the 13 highest-rated telecasts this year. It’s easy to imagine big crowds when Clark faces record-setting rookie Angel Reese of Chicago, established stars Diana Taurasi and Brittney Griner of Phoenix, or Sabrina Ionescu and Breanna Stewart of New York in a playoff series.
Indiana has a league-best record of 9-2 in its last 11 games, and with five more home games and a final game of the season in Washington, the Fever could give the WNBA’s top teams some sleepless nights.
“This is definitely a big moment for this place, but at the same time, I came here expecting this to happen,” Clark said. “For me, this is not a party. It’s great, I think it’s a great accomplishment, but there’s still a lot of work to be done. Yes, we made the playoffs, but I’m not just happy to be in the playoffs. I think we have the type of team that can go game by game.”
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