CHICAGO --Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever stayed red hot with a comprehensive win over Angel Reese and the Chicago Sky on Friday night, 100-81. Now 5-1 since play resumed after the Olympic break, the Fever (16-16) have fought their way back to .500 for the first time this season and have overtaken the Phoenix Mercury (16-16) for sixth place. Soon, they will clinch their first playoff appearance since 2016.
The Sky got off to a great start thanks to some strong shooting, but they went cold after the first few minutes, and it was all Fever after that. They surged back into the game and took the lead for good early in the second quarter on a layup by Kelsey Mitchell that Clark assisted. Those two ran the show in this one, as they have for the past few weeks. By the fourth quarter, the game, which had been physical all night long, started to get a bit chippy. There were multiple away-from-the-play fouls and a Flagrant 1 on Diamond DeShields for running over Clark in transition.
Clark finished with a career-high 31 points, four rebounds and 12 assists, which was just the first 31-point, 12-assist game in WNBA history. Mitchell, meanwhile, went for 23 points on 9-of-13 shooting to continue her stellar play. NaLyssa Smith also chipped in 14 points and seven rebounds in a solid showing.
The Sky (11-20) suffered their fifth defeat in a row and are now just half a game ahead of the Atlanta Dream (10-20) for the eighth and final playoff spot. In truth, though, falling into the lottery would be for the best long-term for the Sky, even with the pick swap they owe the Dallas Wings, who will also be in the lottery.
Here are some key takeaways from the game:
Clark does it again
If it wasn't over already, Caitlin Clark ended the Rookie of the Year race on Friday night with one of her best performances this season in a statement win over Angel Reese and the Sky.
Clark was on point all night long, as she controlled the offense with a perfect balance of scoring and creating for her teammates. The Sky had no answers. By the fourth quarter, Clark was skipping down the court with glee, and when she finally checked out she pumped up the crowd as if it was a home game.
All told, Clark finished with a career-high 31 points, four rebounds and 12 assists. In the process, she became the fifth player in league history with a 30-point, 10-assist game, and recorded her fifth game of 20 points and 10 assists, the most such games in the WNBA this season.
Post-game, Fever coach Christie Sides was most impressed with how Clark, who turned it over just three times, was under control.
She did an excellent job taking care of the ball," Sides said. "She did an excellent job late in the game when we didn't have the advantage in transition she was pulling the ball out. That's just the growth. That's things we weren't doing earlier [in the season]. She's recognizing those things, she's making some play calls. We try to get her to understand what our advantages will be with certain play calls versus certain teams. She made some of those calls during the game, ended up with buckets a lot of times."
Mitchell's scoring binge continues
Kelsey Mitchell just might be the most underrated player in the league, but it won't stay that way for long if she keeps playing like she has since the Olympic break. At 25.2 points per game, the veteran is second in scoring among all players since the action resumed.
She was stellar again on Friday, finishing with 23 points on a highly-efficient 9 of 13 from the field. While she's always been able to put the ball in the basket, she's never done so this efficiently. Over these last six games, Mitchell's shooting splits are incredible: 51.9/43.4/94.1.
Defenses have to show so much attention to Caitlin Clark and Aliyah Boston that Mitchell is often being defended one-on-one or left open for spot-up 3-pointers. She's too quick for the former and too good of a shooter for the latter. With a few months of games under the belt, we're starting to see just how dangerous the Fever can be on the offensive side of the ball as they tallied 100 points for the first time this season.
"I think it's just a matter of our chemistry," Mitchell said. "We've really taken times as teammates to get to know each other on and off the court. It serves to what you see now. We've established what our chemistry is and how we want to play. We've got an unbelievable chemistry now to where it's unspoken."
Reese makes more history in defeat
Angel Reese was not at her most impactful in this one. She finished with 10 points and 11 rebounds for another double-double, but dealt with foul trouble and turnovers all night long.
Even so, she did once again write her name into the history books.
With her 23rd double-double of the season, Reese surpassed Tina Charles for the most by a rookie in league history. She also moved past Charles on the all-time rookie rebounding list with her 399th of the season. Though she's had her issues finishing around the basket, Reese is a dynamite rebounder.
