The Indiana Fever were without star guard Caitlin Clark for the 3rd consecutive game as she continues to recover from a groin injury, and were taking on the 1st place Minnesota Lynx on their home court. One could be forgiven for expecting the -10.5 point underdogs to come up short in the 2025 Commissioner’s Cup finals Tuesday night.
Instead, the Fever flipped the script on the Lynx, winning a fairly one sided 74-59 contest, and securing the league’s in-season championship for the first time in franchise history.
“We have a resilient group, you know?” Fever coach Stephanie White said. “They’re tough, mentally and physically. They pull for one another. I’m just really proud. We’re going to continue to get better. Caitlin is a player who has a high usage rate, has the ball in her hands a lot. Learning to play without her, learning to make big plays in tough moments on both ends of the floor is important.”
It was a team effort from the Indiana roster, who didn’t have a single 20 point scorer, but had 5 different players chip in with double digit scoring in the win. Forward Natasha Howard paced the team with 16pts/12reb/4ast, and received a double-double performance from Aliyah Boston who had 12pts/11reb as well.
“I think we’ve got a team full of givers,” said guard Kelsey Mitchell following the victory. “That’s what our team is all about. It felt good to get a win under gut-check circumstances. To have so much going on and still stay consistently for each other, it was beautiful. It felt really amazing.”
But it wasn’t just the team’s offence that propelled the team to the championship, the Fever’s defence was equally as effective holding the Lynx scoreless for the final 8:13 of the first half. This gave the team a 5 point cushion heading into the break after being outscored 20-12 in the first quarter.
With the win, that marks 5 different franchises who have won the Commissioner’s cup since it was introduced back in 2021. Indiana joins Seattle, Las Vegas, New York, and Minnesota in that regard, and will split the $500,000 prize pool.
Indiana is next in action on Thursday night vs. the Las Vegas Aces in a 7pm ET tip off.
Photo: Johnmac612. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.