Indiana Fever coach Christie Sides missed her team’s big playoff-clinching moment on Tuesday night because she was asleep. Rookie guard Caitlin Clark also watched the important game and then went to bed.
For the WNBA’s most popular team, ending a seven-year playoff drought without playing felt a bit anticlimactic.
On Wednesday morning, things changed for the Fever. The team that had seven straight losing seasons, won only 30 games in the last four years, and started this season 1-8 was now the talk of Indianapolis.
“I usually go to bed by 9:30 or 10 o’clock every night, but I set my alarm for midnight and then just turned it off. I didn’t even check,” Sides said. “So this morning, I woke up to some really great text messages.”
The Fever secured their first postseason spot since Tamika Catchings retired in 2016 due to losses by Chicago and Atlanta, even though Sides had hoped one of those teams would win so the Fever could clinch it at home in front of a big crowd.
Still, nobody was too disappointed, and fans had plenty to cheer about on Wednesday night when Indiana defeated Los Angeles 93-86, thanks to a triple-double from Clark, who also became the fastest player in WNBA history to make 100 3-pointers in a season (she now has 102).
During pregame warmups, everyone was smiling—Clark, the former Iowa star who has taken women’s basketball to new heights; Kelsey Mitchell, the seven-year veteran finally about to experience playoff basketball; and especially Sides, who was named WNBA coach of the month for the first time for the Fever.
Though this was the goal when Indiana drafted Clark with the No. 1 overall pick, it was never guaranteed.
