THE INDIANA FEVER may have spent the majority of the season down, but they were never out.
Injury-riddled from the early stages of the year, the team managed to compile a record of 24-20, but what’s most important is their ability to weather the storm long enough to hold onto the sixth seed in the playoffs and earn a first-round matchup against the Atlanta Dream (30-14).
With an 83-72 victory on Tuesday night at home against the top seeded but shorthanded Minnesota Lynx, Indiana clinched its second straight playoff appearance behind 18 points from guard Kelsey Mitchell.
Mitchell, the offensive motor of the team this season, notes that being able to exhale after making it into the postseason doesn’t mean the team can take its foot off the gas.
“I feel like we never have [a moment] off. I don’t think it’s off, because now it’s about preparation. I will say from a body standpoint, it gives us a chance to get back to where we need, but I think the mental preparation starts right now,” Mitchell says.
After coming back from the All-Star break and winning six of nine games, Indiana looked to build momentum for a second half push, but as the injuries began to pile up throughout the final month of the season, so did the losses.
During that span of time, the total of players sidelined for the remainder of the year ballooned to five, including two-time All-Star Caitlin Clark. In addition to one of the team’s franchise pieces, Aari McDonald and Chloe Bibby were also lost for the year after being signed late in the season with hardship contracts due to the team’s inability to suit up a minimum of 10 players on some nights.
In August, preseason acquisitions Sydney Colson and Sophie Cunningham were also sidelined due to injury within 11 days of each other.
Since then, Indiana has seen a multitude of players step up, including newcomers Odyssey Sims, Aerial Powers, and Shey Peddy, all of whom joined the team within the last month or less.
But with a playoff spot in hand and a season of adversity behind the Fever, head coach Stephanie White says the pressure they’ve played with only serves them for the better.
“I think it gives us a lot of confidence knowing that we can meet the moment at times. I think that when we get a chance to reflect back, it’s about how we meet the moment in every game as opposed to when your back is against the wall. Every game is a back-against-the-wall game now. Being able to put consistency together, to see a flow with our new players and our core group, I’ve been pleased with what we’ve been able to do with these last few games,” White says.
The WNBA selects the top eight teams to advance to the playoffs, and within the last week, Indiana hovered between the seventh and eighth seed with a marginal lead on its standing.
But backed by a 20 points per game average from Mitchell, Indiana has remained hard to beat at times. She’s gone for 18 points or less in just six of the Fever’s final 17 games of the season and finished the ’25 campaign as the franchise’s only player to average 20 points a game in a single season.
From White’s perspective, Mitchell has been invaluable in more ways than just putting the ball in the basket.
“Kelsey Mitchell is a scorer,” White says. “She has always been a scorer. For her to not just do what she does well and do it in an efficient manner, but then to take on playmaking abilities for her teammates, I think, has really expanded her game. It’s shown what she’s capable of doing. By the way, we’ve had to put her on sometimes, the best [opposing] perimeter players that are on offense. … We continue to put more on her plate, and she continues to rise to the challenge.”
On Friday, Mitchell was voted to the Associated Press All-WNBA First Team after a 2025 average of 20.2 points per game while finishing as the league leader in three pointers made with 111 and scoring the second-most points overall in the WNBA with 890.
