Clark's drives and Harris' threes guide Fever to win over Wings: Likes and Dislikes
The Fever are 10 games over .500.
INDIANAPOLIS – The last time the Fever and Wings played was about two months ago – specifically, it was opening night for both teams. It's been a while since that high-scoring battle.
Friday night was the rematch. 2024 and 2025 No. 1 overall picks Caitlin Clark and Paige Beckers were facing off once again, which is usually a highlight-filled battle.
The Wings were missing both Jessica Shepard and Azzi Fudd, and they are 4-6 across their last 10 games. The Fever are in better form, but this was still going to be a tough one.
Likes and Dislikes from Fever vs Wings.
Tony East
LIKE: Jersey Matchup
The Wings were in their blue kits with green trim. The Fever wore red. It was a good looking game in terms of uniforms.
DISLIKE: Early shooting
The Fever started 0/4 from deep and 3/13 from the field overall.
Many of their outside shots were challenging – the Wings defense was doing well to shrink the lane and close out to shooters. But inside the arc, the Fever were not finishing well or moving the ball the way they are capable of. It was leading to poor shot selection.
Some of their looks at the basket were difficult. Even the easier ones were lightly contested. The Fever needed to work for longer possessions and get better field goal attempts after falling behind 11-6 early.
LIKE: A quick response, literally
The Fever scored eight points in about eight minutes to open the game. They were trailing 13-8 with 2:07 left in the first quarter before a rapid comeback.
Kelsey Mitchell hit a tough two, then made it to the cup on the next play for a basket. Ty Harris followed it up with a transition three. In total, it took 61 seconds for those two players to score seven points, nearly matching the Fever's first eight minutes of the game.
It wasn't a pretty start, but that burst helped the Fever hold a 17-15 lead after one quarter. And they had zero turnovers as a team after 10 minutes.
LIKE: Caitlin Clark, driving
Clark was being guarded tightly from beyond the arc, and she made the overcommitting Wings defense pay with several drives to the basket in the second quarter.
At one point, she found her way into the paint on four possessions in a row. She scored once, had a hockey assist on another trip, and drew a foul on another. She was making plays that the Fever scoring attack needed.
Clark had six points and four assists about halfway through the second quarter. Her stats were pedestrian at that moment, but her drives were the best thing going for the Fever's offense.
DISLIKE: Injuries
With about one minute left until halftime, Clark was chasing her matchup on defense and stepped on Alysha Clark's ankle/foot. Immediately, Clark was limping. She tried to fight through it after the Fever got a stop, but she was taken out for Harris.
The clock showed 40.4 seconds left until halftime when Clark limped back to the locker room. She had nine points and four assists at the break. The Wings led 37-35 when halftime arrived.
(Later note: Clark started the second half and was good to go.)
DISLIKE: Containing Arike Ogunbowale
After scoring just three points on 1/6 shooting in the first half, Arike Ogunbowale got going for Dallas early in the third quarter.
She scored from about five feet out to open the second-half scoring for the Wings, then drew two fouls on consecutive possessions a few minutes later, the second of which resulted in an and-one. Both fouls were on Lexie Hull.
The four-time All-Star scored seven points in under three minutes to open the second half and help the visitors extend their lead. The Fever's defense needed to be better.
LIKE: More Caitlin Clark drives
The best thing going for Clark in this game was easily her ability to get to the cup, as noted above. And that continued throughout the third quarter.
Clark couldn't get a three to drop but made her first eight shots from inside the arc, with most of them coming right at the basket. Dallas was picking her up deeper defensively than other teams, and Clark was blowing by that coverage in the halfcourt. She made the Wings pay.
Finally, with just over one minute left in the third period, Clark canned a triple. That got her to 26 points, with the first 23 coming from inside the arc or at the foul line. Her rim pressure was excellent in this game.
She scored 17 points in the third quarter. Bueckers, meanwhile, had 13 in the same stretch. Their battle was fun, and the Wings led 66-63 going into the fourth quarter.
LIKE: Ty Harris and the law of averages
The Fever were struggling from deep, hitting four of their 15 triples through three quarters. They needed someone to step up from the outside.
Enter Harris. She banked in a right-wing triple early in the fourth, then drilled a contested three from the left wing a few possessions later. Those were massive shots and went against the Fever's jump shooting norm for the night. Indiana was up five after Harris' second outside shot. And she hit another late three that was effectively the dagger.
LIKE: The streak survives
Mitchell entered this game having scored 20+ points in 17-straight games, a streak that dates back to June 22. She's been on a heater.
In this outing, it took a while for Mitchell's scoring to take hold. And she was just shy of 20 points for much of the fourth quarter, putting her streak in jeopardy.
Yet with 103 seconds to go and the Fever ahead by 10, Mitchell wiggled through the Wings defense and made it all the way to the basket before finishing a tricky layup. She scored on the team's next possession, too, giving her 23 points for the game and keeping the streak alive.
She already has the record for consecutive 20-plus point games in one season and is two away from the all-time record. And that basket, combined with Harris' fourth quarter, was enough for the Fever to win. Despite some choppy play early, they beat the Wings 98-87 to improve to 22-12. It was a big win for the playoff seeding race.
Thank you for reading. The Fever head out on a road trip for the next week-ish, sign up for postgame stories and other notes from that journey.
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