The Indiana Fever and No. 1 overall pick Caitlin Clark were done no favors by the league's schedule-makers and TV partners early in the season. They played 11 games in the first 20 days, with six coming on the road and eight against the New York Liberty, Connecticut Sun, Las Vegas Aces and Seattle Storm. They went 2-9 and were routinely crushed in the process.
Since things have settled down, it's been a much different story. Over the final three weeks of June, they went 6-3, including a major comeback win on the road over the Phoenix Mercury on Sunday. During that stretch, only the Liberty and Minnesota Lynx had a better record, and their 107.5 offensive rating ranked second only to the Liberty.
Clark, who was one rebound away from becoming the first rookie ever with a triple-double in the win over the Mercury, is the driving force behind this recent success. She's averaged 16.8 points, 6.3 rebounds and 7.6 assists over this nine-game stretch, and shot 40.8% from behind the arc. In just 20 games, she has already set the team's rookie assist record.
But the reason the Fever are winning games is that the rest of their young core has shined as well. Aliyah Boston had a career-high 27 points and 13 rebounds in their win over the Dream on June 13, while Kelsey Mitchell is shooting 50% on 3-pointers and NaLyssa Smith is nearly averaging a double-double during this run.
This is still a very young team prone to mistakes and bad games, but the last few weeks have been a reminder that despite the brutal start to the season, the future is extremely bright in Indianapolis.
| 1 |  |
| The Liberty lost the Commissioner's Cup championship to the Lynx, and thus failed to become the first team to go back-to-back in the competition. That game did not count as a regular-season contest, though, and so they technically extended their winning streak to four games by taking down the Dream. Now 16-3 on the season, they are the 22nd team to get to 16 wins in their first 20 games of a season. 13 of those clubs won the title and 18 of them made the Finals. | |
| 2 |  |
| Bridget Carleton may no longer be one of the most underrated players in the league after her stunning performance in the Commissioner's Cup championship helped the Lynx lift that trophy for the first time in franchise history. The team may have celebrated a bit too hard, as they were upset a few days later by the lowly Wings, but they bounced back with a road win over the Sky to remain in a tie for second place. | |
| 3 |  |
| Two more games, two more wins for the Aces, who are now 4-0 with Chelsea Gray in the lineup and plus-51 in her 86 minutes. She had by far her best game of the season in their win over the Mystics, finishing with 22 points, four rebounds and four assists. The concerns about the Aces' slow start to the season continue to fade away with every successive double-digit victory. | |
| 4 |  |
| The Sun survived an overtime scare from the Mystics, but could not do the same against the Dream and have now lost three of their last four following their incredible 13-1 start. They've failed to reach the 75-point mark in all three of those defeats, highlighting their continued issues on the offensive end. They are very reliant on scoring in transition, on second-chance opportunities and at the free throw line, and when they can't find those easy points, they have trouble. | |
| 5 |  |
| Jewell Loyd has been extremely inconsistent this summer, but she showed this week that when she's at her best, there's few players you would rather have with the ball in their hands. In two wins over the Fever and Wings, she went off for 64 points on 16-of-31 from the field and dished out seven assists. She's now fifth in the league in scoring at 19.9 points per game, but is still shooting a career-low 35.7% from the field. | |
| 6 |  |
| After blowing a 15-point lead last Sunday to the Sky, the Fever ended this week with a 15-point comeback to take down the Mercury. That was by far their most impressive win of the season, and it came on the back of another brilliant Caitlin Clark outing. She scored or assisted on 44 of their 88 points, narrowly missed out on becoming the first rookie ever with a triple-double and set the Fever's single-season rookie assist record in the process. | |
| 7 |  |
| The Mercury's inconsistency is the only consistent thing about them this season. This week, they easily took care of the Sparks, then blew a 15-point lead at home to the Fever. Brittney Griner was plus-13 in that six-point loss to the Fever, and their splits with and without her are starting to become concerning. They have a plus-10.2 net rating when she plays and a minus-10.1 net rating when she doesn't. | |
| 8 |  |
| The Dream surprised everyone by taking down the Sun on the road on Friday. They did so thanks in large part to Jordin Canada, who went for nine points, three rebounds, six assists and three steals in her second game of the season after returning from a hand injury. She was their key offseason acquisition, and her playmaking and perimeter defense are already making an impact. | |
| 9 |  |
| A homestand against the Sun and Aces is about as tough as it gets, and the Mystics lost both contests despite competitive efforts. That really sums up the season for the Mystics, who are 4-15 but have the eighth-best net rating in the league. Including their three-point overtime defeat to the Sun, they now have six losses by five points or less and 11 losses by single digits. | |
| 10 |  |
| It took until the final seconds of their loss to the Lynx on Sunday, but Angel Reese got her 10th double-double in a row to surpass Candace Parker for the longest streak in WNBA history. At 13.3 points and 11.4 rebounds per game, she now leads the league in rebounding and is one of four players averaging a double-double. If she keeps up this pace, she'll become the first rookie since Tina Charles in 2010 to average a double-double for a season. | |
| 11 |  |
| The Wings' miserable 11-game losing streak finally came to an end with a big upset win over the Lynx. Dallas native Odyssey Sims' stunning performance in that victory, which came just two days after she had re-signed with the team, and her emotional reaction afterward, was one of the best moments of the season so far. | |
| 12 |  |
| Only one game for the Sparks this week, and it was another double-digit loss, this time to the Mercury. They've now dropped seven games in a row, which is tied for the second-longest losing streak in franchise history. One of the few bright spots in L.A. this season is the continued excellence of Dearica Hamby, who is on pace to become just the fourth player to average at least 15 points, 10 rebounds and three assists for a season. | |
