Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever flamed out in their regular-season finale.
Indy stood no chance Thursday night as the top-seeded Minnesota Lynx cruised to an 86-66 beatdown. Fever fans were also watching the Lynx matchup for playoff seeding purposes.
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With the loss, the Fever fall into a matchup against the defending champion Las Vegas Aces, led by MVP frontrunner A’ja Wilson. With a win, Indiana could have faced the Atlanta Dream.
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On Tuesday, Indy faced the Lynx at home and pulled off a statement win, at one point handing Minnesota its biggest deficit of the season.
Minnesota extinguished all of Indiana’s momentum in the rematch, locking down Caitlin Clark to a career-worst two points on 1-of-12 shooting (1-for-8 at halftime) in 18 minutes of action.
The Fever went into the half down 62-32. Minnesota was shorthanded for a second consecutive game with rookie sensation Olivia Miles out again with a calf injury.
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The Lynx rested their starters for the bulk of Tuesday’s second half. Indiana seemingly followed suit on Thursday after falling behind by 30 in the third quarter, limiting Clark’s floor time and seeing Sophie Cunningham held scoreless across 16 minutes.
Clark had the opportunity to become the WNBA’s first player to reach 900 points and 300 assists in a single season. She entered Thursday’s game just 11 points shy of the 900-point mark, but fell short, finishing with two points, three assists, and four rebounds.
Indiana’s loss was made worse when starting center Aliyah Boston was ruled out with a right lower leg injury. The Fever also lost guard Ty Harris, who was carried off the court.
On the bright side for Indy, Kelsey Mitchell broke the single-season three-pointer record, hitting her 135th of the season to pass Rhyne Howard (134). Mitchell led the team with 10 points on the night, though she snapped her streak of consecutive games with 20-plus points, ending her run at 27 games as Indiana finishes the regular season at 28-15.
The WNBA postseason starts Sunday.
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