The Fever nearly broke a sweat on Monday.
Rookie phenom Caitlin Clark avoided serious injury after rolling her ankle in the first quarter and helped lead Indiana to an 84-79 win over the Atlanta Dream.
Clark had 19 points on 6-of-14 shooting (including 4-of-8 from beyond the arc), seven assists, seven rebounds, two steals and one block.
She rolled her ankle with three minutes left in the first quarter but returned for the start of the second quarter and immediately made an impact.
Fox 5 Atlanta’s Kelly Price posted a video of Clark’s driving floater early in the second quarter, extending the Fever’s lead to 24-19.
The NCAA’s all-time leading scorer showed her limitless range, hitting a three from the edge of the logo late in the first half to open up a 15-point advantage.
Clark drained another deep three at the start of the third to build on Indiana’s lead, and the Fever held on despite being outscored 20-14 in the fourth to improve their record to 14-16.
Indiana has experienced a remarkable turnaround from a terrible start to the season. It began the year losing eight of its first nine games but has gone 13-8 since June 1.
The win over Atlanta was crucial to its playoff chances. As a result, Indiana is closer to surpassing sixth-seed Phoenix in the standings (two games back) than it is in danger of falling past Atlanta (3.5 games ahead) to ninth and missing the postseason.
The Fever’s season could have turned into a nightmare against the Dream, but Clark eased concerns by not being slowed down after her injury scare.
As she showed, it will take much more to slow down Indiana’s forward momentum.