Why Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever still have a shot to win the 2024 WNBA title

The WNBA playoff format is unforgiving, especially in the first round. With that said, the Indiana Fever still have reasons to believe they can make a deep playoff run.

Game 1 against the Connecticut Sun did not go the way Caitlin Clark and her teammates had hoped for.

The Sun took three out of four games in the regular season from Indiana, but two of those contests were in the first week of the season. The Fever were not the same team in mid-May that they are now.

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The Sun have laid the boom on Indiana before in 2024, only for the Fever to find a way to adjust and improve. This could happen once more during the first round playoff series.

Few teams have been hotter after the first month of the season than the Fever.

Caitlin Clark and the Fever have made huge strides from where they were a year ago. They won seven more games in 2024 than they did in 2023. As long as they're still alive in the postseason, the Fever have a shot to win the championship. All statistics are sourced from Basketball Reference.

When the WNBA season began, things were not looking promising for the Indiana Fever. They came off drafting first overall, which usually indicates they’re a long way from contention. Indiana lost their first five games of the season, and eight of the first nine overall.

Fever head coach Christie Sides talked about the gauntlet they had to endure during the first month of the season. She told Fieldhouse Files website, “I don’t know if I’ve experienced anything like it ever in my 12 years of coaching in this league. Just that grind of a schedule. And two back-to-backs against the two best teams in the league… it’s just tough.”

Despite the initial adversity the team faced, Indiana was able to climb out of a deep early hole. Caitlin Clark told Fox Sports Radio in June, “Nobody ever hung our heads. We had the hardest schedule to start. We didn’t get to practice much and we’re playing with the most inexperienced team in the WNBA… I think this group is starting to click and build some chemistry.”

While it would be great for every team to have a smooth path to the championship, it doesn’t always work that way. Somewhere along the line, teams hit a speed bump and have to come together to get through it. The Fever’s came at the very beginning of the season, and have shown that they won’t back down.

Of course, the main reason why the sports world is focused on the Fever is Caitlin Clark, who has shown why she was taken with the first pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft. She’s provided a well-rounded game that gives Indiana what they need on any given night.

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Basketball fans have seen this movie before, with Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors. It’s entirely possible for a team with an elite shooter to consolidate around one player and achieve great things in the postseason. Defenses will have to pick Clark up 30 or more feet away from the basket, which is hard to do on each and every possession.

Clark doesn’t hoard all the shots for herself. She’s proven to be a savvy playmaker in the WNBA, who makes her teammates better. Former WNBA star and current analyst Rebecca Lobo told Sports Illustrated that Clark, already, is the league’s best passer. Clark’s shooting ability creates natural driving lanes, which allow her to kick the ball out to open teammates.

One of those teammates is Kelsey Mitchell. She doesn’t get the same attention as Clark, but she’s had a really solid career in seven WNBA seasons with the Fever. She’s starting to get some well deserved recognition, as she was named to the All-Star team each of the last two seasons.

As much as Clark is known for her shooting, Mitchell has been a more effective three point shooter in the 2024 WNBA season, and so far in her career. She’s a 37 percent average shooter from downtown. Mitchell is able to make defenses pay when they sag too far off of Clark or other players when the defense breaks down.

Mitchell is also an 84 percent shooter from the free throw line. If teams decide to double Clark at the end of games, Mitchell is more than capable of stepping up to the charity stripe and knocking down shots.

Aliyah Boston is largely viewed as Clark’s partner in crime with the Fever, and she’s had a great start to her WNBA career. She won Rookie of the Year in 2023, and has made the All-Star team both years of her WNBA career. Boston is a presence in the paint who will need to play big against some of the WNBA’s brightest stars in the playoffs.

While Boston’s statistics are pretty similar to her rookie year, she’s made strides in an area most fans would never realize. She told Andscape, “I feel like I started protecting my peace. I just made sure that I was doing stuff that I needed to do that benefits me so that when I get out on that court, I’m not really worried about anyone, anything-just me.”

Lexie Hull has had an unremarkable WNBA career to this point, but things might be changing for the better. Since the WNBA resumed play after the Olympic break, Hull has found her shot from long range. That includes a 22 point outburst against the Seattle Storm, where Hull drained six threes.

Head coach Christie Sides has not been afraid to get creative with her lineups. Hull has primarily come off the bench this season, but Sides inserted her into the starting lineup in late August, and has kept her there ever since. It's not an unfamiliar role for her, as Hull started 25 games for the Fever a year ago. Hull is about as important an X-factor as there is for Indiana.

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The Indiana Fever have won one WNBA title, back in 2012. Their future is extremely bright, but they’re hoping that they can accelerate the timeline with a memorable push that can bring the title back to Indiana.