Fever set multiple offensive records in dominant win over Sun: Likes and Dislikes

The Fever are rolling into the All-Star break.

Fever set multiple offensive records in dominant win over Sun: Likes and Dislikes
Kelsey Mitchell, Caitlin Clark, and Monique Billings take the ball up in the first quarter of Fever vs Sun.

INDIANAPOLIS – The Indiana Fever were hosting the Connecticut Sun in their final game before the All-Star break on Wednesday night. The Fever entered as the clear favorites and better team, but they couldn't afford to look past this outing.

And the Fever were thin – Damiris Dantas and Raven Johnson were both out. They had 10 players available for their final game until next Tuesday.

While the Sun had a 7-19 record, they entered this game winners of five of their last nine. They couldn't be overlooked. Likes and Dislikes from Fever vs Sun.

Circle City Spin
The Indiana Pacers and Indiana Fever, up close

LIKE: Caitlin Clark's early aggression

Caitlin Clark was off of her minutes restriction for the first time in multiple weeks for this game, and she looked spry early.

The 2K cover athlete pushed her way to multiple great looks in the opening minutes, hitting two jumpers from beyond the arc during the first 80 seconds of action. Her third triple came about four minutes into the game.

Along the way, the star guard found Monique Billings for one assist and Aliyah Boston for another. Almost exactly 4.5 minutes into the action, the Sun took a timeout with the score 17-11. Of the Fever's 17 points, Clark had scored or assisted on 15 of them. Quite the start.


LIKE: Kelsey Mitchell, again

Another day, another dominant start from Kelsey Mitchell. It's becoming routine that her scoring gets going the second Clark exits a game.

It happened again on Wednesday night. Clark went to the bench with 2:03 to go in the first quarter, then Mitchell scored five points in those final two minutes. She had 11 at the end of the first frame.

That, combined with Clark's fantastic start, had the Fever ahead 36-2 after one quarter.


LIKE: Caitlin Clark, in the second quarter too

I was tempted to just copy my first blurb on Clark and paste it here as a bit. Her start to the second quarter felt nearly identical to the start in the first.

She knocked down two threes in the first two minutes of the quarter, then tossed a dime to Boston. The Fever, after her early second quarter flurry, were ahead by 20 after about 12 minutes of play.


LIKE: The Fever's star trio taking over

The first three notes from this game were about Clark and Mitchell. Boston was no slouch herself. After the two All-Star guards took over to start the game, Connecticut shifted their defense and started to switch more often.

It was a noble try, but that also meant Boston had smaller defenders on her more often. The Fever identified that weakness right away, and Boston reached 11 points with about five minutes until halftime.

At that moment, all of the Fever's big three had more than 10 points. Mitchell, Clark, and Boston were outscoring the Sun 39-28. It was dominance for that trio.

At halftime, the three All-Stars combined for 50 points. The Sun had 46. Official stats: Clark with 21 points and seven assists, Boston with 13 points and five rebounds, Mitchell with 16 points and two assists.

It was 70-46 at the break. Yes, 70.


LIKE: Everything, basically

Call this lazy, but the second half looked a lot like the first in that the Fever kept rolling. Even when they were playing poorly, their lead extended.

The Fever's edge reached 30 points in the third quarter, and it felt bigger than that at the time. All three stars were rocking. Connecticut could not string together stops.

Even as the Fever's effectiveness faded somewhat, their lead... kept growing. The Suns put together a fine third period and the Fever's lead still expanded because they were just better at everything in this game.


DISLIKE: Technicals

The Sun, clearly frustrated, were playing some aggressive defense later in the third quarter. And they weren't happy about the foul calls that came from it.

Late in the period, Diamond Miller picked up a foul and kept pestering Clark on defense. She was given a technical foul for the extra effort, the first of a few techs late in the quarter.

Then, with 28.8 on the clock in the third frame, Clark drew a foul on Olivia Nelson-Ododa. The Sun and Clark exchanged words after the foul, and Clark was given a double technical along with Saniya Rivers.

It's the seventh technical of the season for Clark. Her next one will come with a one-game suspension. Anyway, the Fever led 97-69 after three quarters.


LIKE: Records

The Fever reached 115 points with 4:01 to go in the game. So there was still over 10% of the game remaining.

And yet, at that time the Fever had set their record for points in one game. The previous high was 114 in their overtime win against the Chicago Sky on June 11. The previous regulation record was 113, set on June 16.

So yes, on June 10 the Fever had never scored more than 112 points in one game. They have now done so three times since.

Also in this game: The Fever set their franchise record for field goal percentage at 61.6% (45/73). They were one assist shy of tying that record, and it ended up as the seventh-highest scoring game in WNBA history.

The Fever beat the Sun 123-88 and improved to 17-10 with the victory.


Thank you for reading. Next up for the Fever: The All-Star break. And I will be there!