The Indiana Fever have just two games remaining in the regular season, starting with a contest tonight against the Minnesota Lynx. But thanks to the results of last night’s WNBA action, this Lynx game also comes with an opportunity for the Fever to lock in a worst case scenario when it comes to the playoffs.
The Dallas Wings unexpectedly fell to the Phoenix Mercury on Monday night, which means Indiana can assure they won’t fall below the sixth seed with a victory over the Lynx.
The Fever currently sit in fifth, but they are only a game ahead of the Washington Mystics, who defeated them on Sunday. The Mystics finish the season with games against the Connecticut Sun and Chicago Sky, who both are near the bottom of the standings.
The Fever are 1.5 games behind the Atlanta Dream for fourth, with the Dream closing out their season in New York versus the Liberty. If Indiana wins out and the Dream lose, they would move into the fourth seed and secure home-court advantage in the first round.
However, a split for the Fever against the league-leading Lynx makes the six seed a likely scenario because the Mystics would win the tiebreaker if they win out and Indiana loses once.
If the Fever do finish in sixth, they would most likely face off with the defending-champion Las Vegas Aces.
The Aces are only 0.5 games ahead of the Dream but they hold the tiebreaker and close the season versus the Los Angeles Sparks and Phoenix Mercury. So they would only need to win one of those games to clinch the third seed.
While the prospects of taking on A’ja Wilson and company are never appetizing, it is not a bad matchup for the Fever. Indiana nearly swept the season series against Las Vegas.
One game saw both Wilson and Caitlin Clark out, a Fever win. Indiana then beat the Aces again in the next meeting, with both victories being blowouts. The Fever lost the third meeting versus Las Vegas in overtime but it took rare circumstances for that to happen. Kelsey Mitchell missed the back half of two free throws and then Clark missed two in a row, allowing Chelsea Gray to hit a three to tie the game as time expired.
That’s not to say this will translate directly to a potential playoff matchup, but the Fever would have to like their chances—especially since they were able to take the Aces to OT of a decisive game 5 last season without Clark and with Mitchell exiting the game early.
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