ATLANTA — Inside the overheated, dimly lit standing-room-only area usually reserved for the Zamboni parking lot, Stephanie White offered a three-syllable summary of how the Indiana Fever navigated chaos to become a viable championship threat.
“We grew up,” White said Sunday night.
The most recent example: a 95-91 overtime win over the Atlanta Dream at State Farm Arena in which both red-hot clubs stumbled badly and regularly. The Fever, with its all-world backcourt and record-breaking efficiency offense, actually relied on young frontcourt talent and the ability to finish defensively, earning a critical victory as they seek home-court advantage in the WNBA playoffs. It was Indiana’s fourth straight victory, improving their record to 23-12. Atlanta fell to 21-13.
Indiana salvaged a 2-2 season tie with Atlanta, which began the day a half-game behind the Fever in the overall standings. White viewed this entire five-game-in-seven-day road trip as a rehearsal for playoff basketball — especially the quick preparation and adjustments it requires — and Sunday certainly felt like the postseason was played early.
Watch this: Mitchell comes up clutch, extends streak of 20+ points in games
“You can’t let one go down because it’s the difference between being home in two games in the first round or going on the road,” said Fever guard Caitlin Clark, who finished with 26 points and nine assists. “This was big. This was really important for us to win, and that’s kind of the story of the whole road — this is the last matchup we have against a lot of these teams, and these teams are really good, and we’ll see possible teams in the playoffs.”
Timpson continues to reveal growth
In February, the Fever staff visited Unrivaled and checked in with Makayla “KK” Timpson, their promising 6-foot-2 forward who looked very much like a rookie in her rookie year. Get to Indianapolis early, they told Timpson. There’s a lot of work to do.
Timpson’s growth trajectory has now changed the trajectory of Indiana’s season. On Sunday, in her fifth start of the season, she recorded a record 20 points. She scored six points in overtime alone, one lob and one fake lob – she caught Kelsey Mitchell’s aerial ball and put it in the bucket. “Just throw it up there,” Timpson said afterward, “and I’ll go get it.”
However, her defensive abilities changed the equation for White and the coaching staff. Timpson started the game paired with Rhyne Howard, one of the guards headed to the FIBA World Championship with Team USA next month. After that, she went big and then quickly closed down the space when the Fever deployed a fourth quarter zone that rattled the Dream.
“This wasn’t something we were going to throw at her in the first third of the season,” White said. “She would be on regular shifts, guarding players in the post. But the more and more comfortable she got, the more and more responsibility we gave her, and more and more she stepped up and met those expectations. It allows us to do a lot of different things.”
Siva is cooling down
Allisha Gray was the best player on the floor in the first half, scoring 17 points at all levels and earning some face-to-face time with Angel Reese, who jumped off the Dream bench to encourage her more reserved teammate. And when Gray made a step-back 3 midway through the fourth quarter, it put her up 32 points while at least temporarily quelling the fever’s growing momentum.
Gray then finished the game with… 32 points. From the 6:14 mark of the final frame into overtime, the four-time All-Star was gone. She missed a potential jumper after a timeout with less than a minute to play in regulation, then went 0-of-4 with a turnover in overtime.
“I feel like we came up short tonight,” a visibly frustrated Gray said after the game.
However, the Dream were without starting point guard Jordin Canada, who missed the game due to illness, and Gray wasn’t the only star to miss opportunities. In the final sequence of regulation, Howard missed a 3-pointer, and Reese and Naz Hillmon missed putback attempts before the buzzer sounded.
“We just had to move on to the next game,” Dream coach Karl Smesko said. “There was supposed to be a screen in there and we kind of forgot the screen, but then (Howard) took the snap and we told those two guys to really crash the boards. They both did exactly what we asked them to do. We got two looks that could have helped us. They kicked out. Just a bad break.”
Kelsey Mitchell: Shoes out, hit streak
It wasn’t the smoothest effort for Mitchell, the WNBA’s second-leading scorer, or her shoes. In the first half, she spent an entire defensive possession recovering a shoe that fell off as she ran back down the floor. (The fever somehow stopped anyway.) Then, with a chance for a go-ahead score in the final seconds of regulation, Mitchell had the ball, pitched to change direction and her left shoe fell off again, forcing Indiana to call a timeout.
Mitchell then slammed a wayward high-top to the floor. But with 13.5 seconds left in overtime, she finished off a drive through traffic to create a five-point lead for the Fever — a bucket that also kept her 20-point streak alive. It’s now 19 in a row, one shy of the record of 20 held by Las Vegas Aces forward A’ja Wilson.
“Kelsey struggled from the floor in the first half and found it in the second half,” White said. “That’s part of her growth, just knowing to stick with it, it will come.”
But, yes, another suggestion from the coach.
“Triple-knot shoes,” White said with a laugh.
