With just seconds remaining in the Indiana Fever's thrilling 95-91 overtime victory over the Atlanta Dream on Sunday evening, Caitlin Clark secured a rebound and, rather than wait to get fouled, lobbed the ball the length of the court to let the clock expire. "I've had that in the bag for a while," Clark joked after finishing with 26 points and nine assists in another strong outing. "Just chuck it down the court.
Somebody's gotta go get it or the clock's gonna run out." Clark's unconventional move ensured that the Fever's surge continued. They've now won four in a row and 11 of their last 14 to climb into fourth place at 23-12. With nine games to play, they're just two wins away from setting a single-season franchise record.
Entering Sunday's matchup, the Fever were in fourth place at 22-12 and the Dream were in fifth at 21-12; Atlanta led the season series 2-1. Early in the game, ESPN's broadcast noted that the winner would have a massive edge in the race for a top-four seed, which comes with home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. If the Dream had won, they still would have been half a game behind the Fever in the standings, but they would have clinched the season series and the tiebreaker in the event that the teams have identical records at the end of the season.
Instead, the Fever came back from a 10-point second-half deficit to win. The result moved them one and a half games ahead of the Dream in the standings and evened the season series at 2-2. In a two-team tiebreak, head-to-head record is the first tiebreaker, and the second is record against .500 or better teams at the end of the season.
We'll now have to wait until the season is over to find out whether the Fever or Dream win the season series, but as of Sunday, the Fever are 10-10 against .500+ opponents and the Dream are 10-11. The Fever now have a 63% chance of earning a top-four seed, something they haven't done since the WNBA changed the playoff format in 2016 to eliminate conference affiliation. After the Fever spent the entire fourth quarter working their way back from a double-digit second-half deficit, the score was tied at 81-81 with less than 10 seconds to play.
The Dream had the ball and had three looks at a probable game-winner. Rhyne Howard's initial attempt was an airball, but it went right to Angel Reese, who had carved out some space under the basket. Unfortunately for the Dream, Reese's elite offensive rebounding ability and poor interior finishing were both on display on that possession.
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