INDIANAPOLIS – The Indiana Fever are back in the playoffs—and they didn’t even have to play a game to get there.
Losses from the Atlanta Dream and Chicago Sky on Tuesday night clinched the Fever’s first playoff berth since 2016.
Led by stellar play from rookie Caitlin Clark and veteran guard Kelsey Mitchell, the Fever have a winning record at 17-16 and are looking to finish the season on the winning side for the first time since 2015.
They’ve won four in a row and six of seven since the league’s monthlong Olympic break.
It marks the franchise’s first playoff berth since Fever icon Tamika Catchings retired. It’s a major accomplishment for a team that started the season 2-9 after a bruising schedule that included 11 games in 19 days, with early matchups against some of the WNBA’s top teams.
The Fever reached the playoffs in 12 straight seasons from 2005 through 2016. They haven’t had a winning season since 2015 (they were a .500 team in 2016), and ended with single-digit wins in five of the seven seasons in which they missed the playoffs.
The Fever won the WNBA championship in 2012.
The playoffs start on Sunday, Sept. 22. The first round is a best-of-three series, with the higher seed hosting Games 1 and 2, and the lower seed hosting Game 3 if necessary. The semifinals and finals feature a best-of-five format with the higher seed hosting Games 1, 2 and 5, and the lower seed hosting Games 3 and 4.
The Fever tip off a six-game homestand Wednesday night against the Los Angeles Sparks. They’ll close out the season on the road against the Washington Mystics on Sept. 19.