How Caitlin Clark amazed with 31 points, propelling Fever to the best offense in WNBA

CHICAGO -- The first three Indiana Fever-Chicago Sky games were defined by their competitive nature, with those June matchups being decided by a combined 10 points.

That wasn't the case Friday, though, in the teams' fourth and final meeting of the regular season: The Fever (16-16) cruised to a 100-81 victory -- and led by as many as 27 -- to reach the .500 mark for the first time since May 2022, when they were just 2-2. Indiana's 103 straight games under .500 was the third-longest streak in WNBA history, per Elias Sports Bureau.

The last time the franchise was .500 or better in the month of August? That would be 2016, the legendary Tamika Catching's final season.

Behind their largest margin of victory this season, the Fever also ensured a win of the season series against the Sky 3-1.

"It feels good to be sitting at .500 right now," Indiana coach Christie Sides said. "It's been a really long time since the Fever sat at .500. I'm just really proud of that and where we are from where we started. But I never had any doubts that this is where we could be."

Indiana has been one of the hottest teams in the league since the Olympic break, improving to 5-1 in that span. By hitting the century mark on Friday -- a season high in scoring -- the Fever demonstrated once more how they've had the best offense in the league since mid-June and how they've become one of the WNBA's most dangerous teams.

Rookie sensation Caitlin Clark was spellbinding with 31 points, a career high, and 12 assists. She is the fifth player in WNBA history with 30 points and 10 assists in a game and third to achieve that stat line in regulation.

Chicago, which held a Barbie Night in honor of rookie star Angel Reese, has lost five straight games and six of seven in the second half. Michaela Onyenwere and Lindsay Allen paced the Sky with 20 and 19 points, respectively.

Here are three takeaways from the contest.

Fever's red-hot offense shows no let up

Indiana has had the best offensive rating in the league since June 13, and Friday's performance will only boost that number.

After a starting slow and falling behind by 13, the Fever got into a groove with their bread and butter: by pushing the pace and converting from the 3-point arc. Mitchell (23 points) led the charge with 18 first-half points -- her most in a half this season -- but she and Clark combined for 6-for-9 shooting from 3 in the first 20 minutes. It was more of the same in the second half, allowing the Fever to manage one of their best 3-point shooting nights of the season (13 for 29).

Clark - who on top of going 5 of 9 from 3 recorded her 11th double-double of the season and passed Ticha Penicheiro for the most games by a WNBA rookie with at least 10 assists (nine) -- will get the headlines for her career night, but the team was also quick to credit the defensive contributions of Temi Fagbenle, who was a team-best -plus 29 off the bench, Lexie Hull, who kept up her recent hot shooting (3 for 4 from deep) and NaLyssa Smith, whose 11 third-quarter points stabilized the Fever when Aliyah Boston went to the bench in foul trouble. Mitchell's productive first half helped ensure her sixth-consecutive game with at least 20 points, extending a franchise record.

"To see where we are now, I think the sky's the limits for us," Mitchell said of the offense. "Our offense and what you see and our fierce competitiveness is just kind of in our DNA. We want it to stay like that."

Sky skid continues

The Sky had all the momentum early Friday and established an offensive flow that allowed them to build an 24-11 lead. Coach Teresa Weatherspoon preached a next-player up mentality going into the game with top scorer Chennedy Carter (health and safety protocols) absent, and Allen and Onyenwere answered the call, starting the game a combined 7 for 9 from the field and 3 for 3 from the 3-point arc. At the half, where the Sky were down only five, those two had combined for 28 of Chicago's 42 points.

Late-game execution was a sticking point for the Sky in recent games, but Friday was more of a case of the wheels falling off. The Fever pulled within three by the end of the first, then won the middle two quarters by a combined 19 points. Even when Chicago was within single digits in the third quarter, it never felt like Indiana had really lost control.

Since the season resumed, Weatherspoon has been imploring her team to be more disciplined defensively, to know and execute the scout. Allowing 100 points -- the most the Sky have allowed all season -- and letting the Fever get pretty much whatever they wanted offensively was the opposite of that.

"We have a lot of things we need to correct, and it starts on the defensive side of the ball," Weatherspoon said. "We're not being disruptive. We're allowing teams to get shots where they want it, when they want it.

"Defense is the hardest damn thing you're going to play in this game. In the third quarter, we sent them to the line over and over and over and over."

Guard Rachel Banham,who joined the team last month in the trade that sent then-top scorer Marina Mabrey to Connecticut, didn't hold back in the postgame news conference, saying "we just had a lack of effort sometimes."

"If you're not motivated getting your ass whipped, we've got a problem," she said. "Then don't put on the uniform. You better feel this in your chest."

Chicago doesn't have a lot of time to figure things out with a difficult road swing ahead. It will play at Minnesota on Sunday and at Las Vegas on Tuesday.

Playoff race gets more interesting

Don't look now, but if the regular season ended today, the Fever would earn the sixth seed in the playoffs, as they own the tiebreaker over the similarly 16-16 Phoenix Mercury.

A lot can still change over the next three weeks, but the notion of the Fever getting as high as a sixth seed in the postseason seemed far-fetched when they started 2024 with a 1-8 record. Their favorable remaining schedule - they have three games left against teams with winning records and two of them are at home - should have Indiana fans feeling quite comfortable with where the team sits with playoffs around the corner.

Chicago (11-20), meanwhile, is holding on for dear life to the eighth seed amid its current season-worst losing streak. And yet it is still one game ahead of the Atlanta Dream, who fell to the two-time defending champion Las Vegas Aceson Friday night. The Dream have failed to capitalize off the struggling Sky by losing four straight following wins over the Storm, Sun and Mercury to start the second half. And with the Wings beating the Lynx, Dallas can't be counted out either, as it is now two games back of Chicago (as is Washington).

Much can happen in three weeks, but if the Sky want to play into late September, they need to fix their problems fast before a sixth consecutive postseason berth slips through their fingers.