The historic WNBA season continues as Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever (15-16) secured a crucial 84-80 victory against the second-best team in the league, the Connecticut Sun (22-8). During the game, Clark set a new WNBA rookie record for three-pointers made in a season with 86, with nine games still left to play.

This victory was vital to maintain their seventh-place position in the standings and to create some distance from the eighth and final playoff spot, a feat the Fever hasn’t achieved since 2016 when they finished the regular season 17-17 and lost in the first round to Phoenix Mercury and Diana Taurasi.

Home Court Advantage

Last night’s win at home improved the Fever’s record to 9-1 in their last 10 games at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, making their home court a fortress where they will play six of their remaining nine games.

This strong home advantage will be crucial as they aim to climb higher than the seventh place in the standings.

During the game, the official Fever account announced, “We’ve set a WNBA attendancerecord this season with more than 500k total fans at our home and road games.”

Among those fans were two women who won seven gold medals between them at the Paris Olympics: Simone Biles, who won three golds and a silver, and Gabby Thomas, who won three golds in athletics, including one in the 200m (21.83) and two with Team USA.

After the game, the athletes congratulated the Fever team, starting with Caitlin Clark for her record-breaking night.

With her four medals in Paris, Simone Biles tied with Vra áslavská as the second-most decorated female Olympic gymnast and holds the most Olympic medals earned by a U.S. gymnast.

She also became the oldest Olympic gymnast from the U.S. in 72 years since Clara Marie Schroth-Lomady in Helsinki 1952. Biles, an athlete of her era, shared that this was her first WNBA game and that she plans to attend more in the future.

We may even see her at the playoffs, which is where the Fever is aiming to be for the first time since 2016. After the game, Clark praised her fans during the press conference, saying, “I thought our crowd was honestly incredible.”

Up Next: Clark vs. Reese

With just three weeks left in the season and about ten games remaining per team before the playoffs begin, every game from now on is crucial. 

Tomorrow, we’ll have an exciting and tough matchup between the Indiana Fever and the Chicago Sky. This will be the fourth time this season that Clark and Angel Reese will face off, with Indiana leading the series 2-1.

Since their last meeting on June 23rd, the teams have had contrasting results-Fever has an 8-5 record, while Sky has gone 5-10.

A win for the Fever would put them five games ahead of the Sky and further secure their playoff spot with nine games remaining, six of which are at home, their strength

If Chicago wins, they would remain three games behind and stay one game ahead of the Atlanta Dream(10-20) in the eighth position.

Out of the 12 teams, three have already clinched playoff spots-New York Liberty, Connecticut Sun, and Minnesota Lynx-leaving just five spots for the remaining nine teams.

Given the Los Angeles Sparks’ poor season, winning only six games, the real battle for the last playoff spots will likely be between Chicago Sky (11-19), Atlanta Dream (10-18), and Washington Mystics (9-22), as Indiana Fever is beginning to pull away. Tomorrow’s game is crucial for Reese and Chicago.