Eight years is the perfect window to contextualize Indiana’s accomplishments that were achieved this weekend. At this time in 2017, the Fever had just wrapped up an 8-26 campaign. They missed the postseason for the first time since 2004 and were just beginning the post-Tamika Catchings era. The wishes were to return to relevance quickly.
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Kelsey Mitchell, a current Indiana Fever star, was drafted a few months later. Hopes were high. But Indiana lost their first 10 games in 2018, and it ended up taking more than seven seasons for the franchise to win half of their games in a season.
That’s why nights like Sunday aren’t lost on anyone, including Mitchell.
“I think everything that once was with this organization to what it is now, I think it was always supposed to be like this,” Mitchell said of the growth of the franchise in the last four years. “I guess it had to be like that for us to get here.”
On Sunday, the Fever handled the Mystics, 94-65. The victory officially put Indiana in the 2025 postseason field, meaning they’ll be in the playoffs for the second straight season. Mitchell, a team leader in every sense, had a quiet game for her standards with just 10 points. But her team was spectacular against a reeling Washington group.
“I like to think that we’re making our way up instead of going back down,” Mitchell shared later. By toppling the Mystics, Indiana improved to 23-20 with just one game to go in the 2025 season. For reference, in the four WNBA seasons from 2020 through 2023, Mitchell’s Fever won 30 games, total.
So much was at stake Sunday night at CFG Bank Arena — Indiana and Washington played at a larger venue in Baltimore. The Fever, with a win, could have earned:
-A 2025 postseason spot
-A top-seven seed in the playoff field — avoiding the Minnesota Lynx in the first round
-The franchise’s first winning record since 2015
-The franchise’s first home playoff game since 2016
-The most wins in franchise history
All of that was achieved when the final buzzer sounded. Of course, the Fever are playing 44 games this season — more than ever before. Winning more games than any past season isn’t a front-page achievement. This Fever team will finish ninth in franchise history in win percentage. But as they earned their 23rd victory of the 2025 season, they did still pull off many incredible feats, and they did so in the middle of a season from hell.
Stephanie White is the Indiana Fever’s head coach right now. She was also the head coach in 2015, the last time the franchise had a winning record. The following season, White guided the team to the playoffs again, and they hosted a first-round playoff game against the Phoenix Mercury. Phoenix won that night, and to this day that’s the team’s most recent postseason outing in Indianapolis.
That will change later this week, and White is fittingly in charge once again. “It means I’m old,” White joked of that feat. “It means a lot,” she then said, more seriously, before commenting on the success of her assistant coaches this season. Collectively, they’ve guided Indiana through a ridiculous number of injuries and bumps in the road.
All of Damiris Dantas, Sophie Cunningham, Sydney Colson, Aari McDonald, Caitlin Clark, DeWanna Bonner, and Chloe Bibby have missed time for the Fever this season — Bonner is now on a completely different team. 18 players have suited up for Indiana this season, and White has deployed nine different starting lineups. That averages out to one every 4.8 games, and that doesn’t even account for the team playing more often than everyone but Minnesota this year thanks to their Commissioner’s Cup title.
The start-stop nature of the campaign has been challenging. Most of those injuries or absences have come in the last month, meaning several hardship players have come in and been needed. That has caused some chemistry hiccups, but the Fever have mostly pushed through them.
It was always something for this Fever group. It would have been easy to fold or give substandard effort, given the challenging circumstances. Most would have understood how this team, despite their high hopes, missed the postseason with all of their injuries.
But they pushed through and kept their focus. Aerial Powers, a hardship player signed less than three weeks ago, was asked if she could feel the postseason urgency when she was signed in mid-August. “Of course,” Powers, a former champion, said. “I know what we all want to achieve. [The] playoffs was the first goal. Now the next goal, just like coach said, is making a run in the playoffs.”
Teleporting back on media day this season, few within the Fever would have been thrilled by a winning record and playoff appearance. But teleporting forward after media day and everyone is impressed by the team’s resolve — being where they are given what they’ve dealt with is quite the feat. So while it wasn’t reaching the championship expectations Clark put on her group before the campaign, Sunday’s win still came with major accomplishments for a young Fever team.
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The postgame scene was telling. Players were largely smiling and in good moods. Aliyah Boston made a Tik Tok in the locker room with some of her teammates. A sense of pride was obvious. The Fever need to feel like they achieved something given the season they’ve had.
But the focus and weight of expectation was still there. After the final buzzer, there was no extra cheering or celebrating on the court. A quick huddle, then back to the locker room. In two days, the Fever will play again. Seeding is still technically on the line, and White has done an effective job keeping her team looking strictly at the next opponent during the last few weeks.
They’re a group that knows expectations are high. And they play for a franchise that knows better than anyone how significant simply making the playoffs can be. The players balanced those emotions well after beating the Mystics — showing that they felt like this was supposed to happen, but it was difficult. They hope for more but have done a lot.
“We never doubted ourselves. We never doubted that we could be in the playoffs. Even if things looked like it got harder for us, it was about sticking together,” Boston explained. “And I think through everything, you’re able to see that. Let’s play with joy. Let’s play together, regardless of who’s on that floor.”
Boston would later share that the locker room had an excited mood postgame. They’ve been enjoying the little moments together of late, and a single win over the Mystics is just that — a little moment.
But for an Indiana Fever franchise that fell short of the playoffs seven-straight times, it was a big moment. For a roster and staff that has battled through hellish circumstances, it was a big moment. Looking backwards or forwards, Indiana’s 2025 playoff berth is a major accomplishment, and they have plenty more they are capable of.
