The Indiana Fever have gotten off to a lukewarm start to the 2025 WNBA season, and they’ll now have to find a way to establish some momentum without their biggest star.
On Monday, the Fever announced that Caitlin Clark had suffered a quad injury and will miss the next two weeks of action, at minimum. The team was short on details, mentioning nothing about when the injury occurred and only that further updates will be given when Clark is re-evaluated.
This is obviously not very good news for the Fever, especially with it coming after a heartbreaking loss at home to the New York Liberty. Indiana led by as many as 12 points in the fourth quarter but was unable to hang on against the defending champs, dropping the team’s record to 2-2. Clark, in particular, did not look like herself, shooting 6-for-18 from the field (33.3 percent) and committing 10 turnovers, while the Fever as a team were outscored 25-11 at the free throw line.
Despite the letdown against New York and Clark’s injury, the Fever aren’t in a bad spot. It could be argued that they should be 4-0 right now rather than 2-2, as their two losses came by a total of three points. As for the immediate future, the Fever have now hit a favorable spot in their schedule, and even without Clark, they have the players to take advantage of it.
Aliyah Boston and Kelsey Mitchell are capable of carrying the Fever
One of the reasons why so many analysts were high on Indiana prior to the season was the amount of star-level talent on its roster. Center Aliyah Boston and guard Kelsey Mitchell were both named All-Stars in 2024, and both players are plenty capable of leading their team. The Fever will probably be asking even more of the duo while Clark is recovering.
This might involve running more of the team’s offense through Boston in the post, which, through Indiana’s first four games, has not been as much of a focal point as in past seasons. In 2023, 39 percent of Boston’s offensive possessions came via post-ups, according to Synergy Sports; this season, that frequency has dipped to 18.3 percent, with head coach Stephanie White placing a greater emphasis on Boston rolling to the basket.
Without Clark to run the pick and roll, however, White may want Boston to return to her bread and butter—at least temporarily. Boston has been excellent for the Fever thus far in 2025, posting career-highs across the board (18.5 points, 10.8 rebounds and two blocks per game; 60.8 percent shooting from the field), so she certainly seems ready to take on a heavier workload.
The Fever will have to find a way to do this without sacrificing too much of their overall offensive identity. Indiana currently leads the WNBA in percentage of offensive possessions coming in transition (21.9 percent), which is an advantage the Fever would surely love to keep. It can be difficult to play at a fast pace when post-ups are a big part of a team’s playbook, though, so if Boston is going to operate more with her back to the basket, the Fever’s pace of play may drop.
No matter what schematic adjustments the Fever make in the coming weeks, expect Mitchell to remain a big part of their plans. The two-time All-Star has been one of the league’s most dependable scorers for years, having averaged better than 17 points per game in every WNBA season since 2020, and she’s definitely no stranger to carrying a large offensive burden, as evidenced by the many years she spent as Indiana’s sole reliable scoring threat.
Where Mitchell could be asked to do more, though, is in the playmaking department. According to Basketball Reference, she’s only assisted on 25 percent or more of her teammates’ baskets once in her career (2022), and since Indiana drafted Clark, she’s been finishing plays far more often than initiating them. Without a clear answer to start at point guard (veteran backup Sydney Colson could start and play more minutes, but probably won’t have a large role otherwise), Mitchell will surely have the ball in her hands more often. She’s not a natural distributor, but it will have to do for the time being. Because Indiana is already short on ball handlers, a by-committee offense that has Mitchell bringing the ball up and still getting her usual 14-15 shots per game may be in order.
The Fever are approaching a soft spot in their schedule
The other reason to be optimistic about the Fever at this point in the season is just as simple: They are, on paper, better than most of the teams they’re about to play.
Indiana’s upcoming schedule includes games against the Washington Mystics (2-3), Connecticut Sun (0-4) and Chicago Sky (0-3). Both the Mystics and Sun are in varying stages of roster rebuilds, and while that by no means guarantees Fever victories against them, it’s hard not to like Indiana’s chances. As for the Sky, we already saw the Fever dismantle them in their season opener, and Chicago hasn’t done much to inspire any confidence since then.
There aren’t many sure things in the WNBA, and Indiana hasn’t done nearly enough yet to take its upcoming opponents lightly. Even so, the Fever are in a good position to earn a few wins, and by the time Clark returns, they could be poised to make a run at the top of the WNBA standings.
