Before the 2024 season began, before Caitlin Clark declared for the WNBA Draft, and even before the lottery balls gifted Indiana the No. 1 pick for the second straight year, Fever general manager Lin Dunn had one goal in mind: make the postseason.
As she told The Athletic before the 2024 draft lottery, “We’d like to get to the point where we don’t have draft parties.”
With losses by the Atlanta Dream and Chicago Sky on Tuesday night, Indiana achieved that initial milestone. For the first time since 2016, the Fever advanced to the WNBA playoffs. Indiana (17-16) is currently the No. 6 seed in the standings, half a game ahead of the Phoenix Mercury — who also clinched a playoff berth Tuesday — with the tiebreaker in hand.
🚨 CLINCHED 🚨
The @IndianaFever have secured their place in the 2024 WNBA Playoffs presented by @Google
Tonight’s results sealed the deal:
✅ Chicago Sky loss
✅ Atlanta Dream loss#WelcometotheW pic.twitter.com/CBar7wn16t— WNBA (@WNBA) September 4, 2024
The Fever’s seven-year absence from the postseason was tied for the longest in WNBA history with the Sky from 2006 to 2012. They won double-digit games only twice during that streak, and not a single player in the Indiana starting five (Aliyah Boston, Clark, Lexie Hull, Kelsey Mitchell and NaLyssa Smith) has ever appeared in a playoff game.
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Based on their recent stretch of play, the Fever have a chance to make noise in the postseason. They collected wins against both the Connecticut Sun and the Minnesota Lynx, their two most likely first-round opponents. Indiana has the best offensive rating in the league (as of Tuesday) since the Olympic break, with Mitchell and Clark as the second- and third-leading scorers during that stretch. The team also boasts the third-best net rating over those seven games thanks to a league-average defense, a significant improvement from the 11th-best defensive unit before the break.
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(Photo: Paras Griffin / Getty Images)
