The Indiana Fever picked up their biggest win in nearly a decade on Monday night, as they held off the Atlanta Dream, 84-79, on the road. In the process, No. 1 overall pick Caitlin Clark tied Dream guard Rhyne Howard for the all-time rookie 3-point record with her 85th of the season.
Aliyah Boston helped the Fever jump out to a quick 8-0 lead, but the Dream soon worked their way back into the game, which foreshadowed how the night would go. The Fever were in control the entire way, and led by as many as 18 points, but were unable to put the Dream away for good until the closing seconds. A late run got the home team within three points, but they missed multiple game-tying 3-pointers, and Kelsey Mitchell hit two free throws to ice it.
Mitchell finished with 29 points to lead the Fever in the scoring department, while Clark had 19 points, seven rebounds and seven assists in a solid all-around performance. The latter went 4 of 9 from behind the arc, including a smooth step-back over Howard early in the fourth quarter to tie her rookie 3-point mark.
While Clark’s shot has come and gone throughout the season, she’s making a stout 33% of her 8.5 attempts per game and is second only to Kayla McBride in total makes. The Fever have 10 games remaining, so Clark should easily become the first rookie to make 100 3s in a season.
Entering Monday’s showdown, Indiana sat in seventh place with a 2.5-game lead over the ninth-place Atlanta. But after the big win, that advantage is now 3.5 games. Add in the tiebreaker that the Fever (14-16) own and they essentially have a 4.5-game lead on the 10-19 Dream with 10 contests remaining.
At this point, it would take a major collapse for the Fever to miss out on the postseason, somewhere they haven’t been since 2016, when Clark was just beginning high school. Ending the longest active playoff drought in the league would be a major success for Indiana this season.
As for the Dream, they are now one game back of the eighth-place Chicago Sky for the final playoff spot. While they are certainly still in the mix, this was a tough loss, especially considering how close they came to pulling off the big comeback.