Caitlin Clark leads Fever past Dream in overtime thriller with major playoff seeding implications
Get the Sports newsletter
Daily sports — scores, transfers, the storylines from the leagues you actually follow. Free.
- Indiana Fever rallied from a 10-point second-half deficit to beat the Atlanta Dream 95-91 in overtime, their fourth straight win, improving to 23-12 and moving 1.5 games ahead of Atlanta in the standings.
- Caitlin Clark posted 26 points and nine assists, missing her fourth straight 20-point/10-assist game by one assist, and sealed the win by lobbing the ball the length of the court as time expired rather than waiting to get fouled.
- Makayla Timpson delivered a career-high 20 points on 9-of-13 shooting with seven rebounds in 33 minutes, scoring six consecutive points in overtime to give the Fever the lead for good; the Fever are plus-38 with her on the floor across 116 minutes since she joined the starting lineup Aug. 8.
- The Fever now have a 63% chance of earning a top-four seed and home-court advantage in the first round — something they haven't done since the WNBA eliminated conference affiliation from its playoff format in 2016.
- Kelsey Mitchell extended her WNBA-record 20-point streak to 19 games with a clutch overtime layup despite a 9-of-22 shooting performance, while Aliyah Boston added 18 points, 14 rebounds, five steals and three blocks and is now shooting a career-high 43.2% from three-point range.
- The Dream had three looks at a potential game-winner in the final 10 seconds of regulation but missed — Rhyne Howard airballed, Angel Reese missed a putback, and Naz Hillmon missed another putback — sending the game to overtime where they fell apart.
Why it matters: The Fever, who haven't earned a top-four playoff seed since the WNBA scrapped conferences in 2016, now control their own destiny with a 1.5-game cushion over the Dream and a 63% shot at home-court advantage in the first round. Timpson's Aug. 8 promotion into the starting lineup has coincided with a four-game win streak and a plus-38 on-court margin, fundamentally reshaping Indiana's ceiling.
Ask SkimNews
