Fever outlast Dream 95-91 in OT, pad playoff lead
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- Indiana Fever defeated the Atlanta Dream 95-91 in overtime, extending their win streak to four and improving to 23-12, opening a 1½-game lead over Atlanta (21-13) for the No. 4 seed and a half game behind the Las Vegas Aces (24-12).
- Caitlin Clark finished with 26 points and nine assists, recording her 23rd career game with at least 25 points and five assists — moving her to No. 5 in WNBA history in that category.
- Aliyah Boston (18 points, 14 rebounds) and Makayla Timpson (career-high 20 points) combined for 10 of Indiana's 14 overtime points to put Atlanta away after the Dream led by 10 with 11 seconds left in the third quarter.
- Kelsey Mitchell scored 20 points, extending her streak of 20-plus point games to 19 consecutive as she and Clark headlined an offense that overcame a potentially fatal third-quarter deficit.
- Angel Reese logged her 23rd double-double (15 points, 14 rebounds, six assists) for the Dream — six shy of Alyssa Thomas' 2023 WNBA single-season record — while Allisha Gray matched a career-high 32 points with seven rebounds and five assists.
- Reese and Naz Hillmon grabbed offensive rebounds in the final five seconds of regulation but missed both putbacks that would have sealed the Dream win; the game was played at State Farm Arena (home of the Atlanta Hawks) to accommodate a dueling crowd of Clark and Reese fans.
- The Fever now head to Toronto, Dallas, New York and Chicago with five of their final nine games against current playoff teams, while the Dream embark on a four-game western swing with four of their final 10 opponents in the postseason.
Why it matters: Indiana's win gives the Fever a 1½-game cushion and the head-to-head tiebreaker over Atlanta — a critical edge after the Fever upset the Dream 2-1 in last season's playoffs — while a loss would have flipped the tiebreaker to Atlanta. For the Dream, the defeat squeezes their margin with 10 games left, and Reese's chase of Alyssa Thomas' 2023 double-double record (six away) adds a season-long subplot to the playoff race.
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