2024-07-18 11:50:01
Game Preview: Fever Play at Dallas for Final Game Before WNBA All-Star and Olympic Break
Wed, Jul 17, 2024, 3:12 PM
Indiana Fever vs. Dallas Wings
Wednesday, July 17
College Park Center | 7:30 p.m. ET
Broadcast Information
ESPN
GAME PREVIEW:
The Indiana Fever (11-14) round out its regular season schedule before this year’s Olympic break with a road matchup at the Dallas Wings on Wednesday evening. Indiana and Dallas will meet two more times this regular season in September.
Indiana looks to extend its winning streak to three after two dominant victories against the Minnesota Lynx on Sunday and Phoenix Mercury on Friday. A fourth-quarter surge by Indiana on the road at Minnesota on Sunday, highlighted by a 14-6 run to end the game, helped the Fever secure the win as the team outscored the Lynx in the final quarter, 28-14. Fever guard Kelsey Mitchell recorded her seventh and second-consecutive 20+ point scoring effort of the season as she led with a game-high 21 points. Fever guard Caitlin Clark and Fever center Aliyah Boston both contributed 17 points in the win, and Boston pulled down a career-high 16 rebounds.
Dallas enters Wednesday night at 5-19 and has lost three of its last four games, with its most recent win being an 85-82 decision against the Atlanta Dream on July 5. The only other teams Dallas has defeated are the Chicago Sky (May 15), Phoenix Mercury (May 25), Los Angeles Sparks (May 26) and Minnesota Lynx (June 27).
In the Wings’ most recent 87-81 loss against the Sparks on Saturday, five Wings players scored in double figures, starting with guard Odyssey Sims’ team-high 23 points on 9-of-17 field goal shooting, five rebounds and five assists. Forward Natasha Howard totaled 14 points, seven rebounds, four assists, two blocked shots and two steals in the loss. Center Kalani Brown came off the bench and grabbed 13 points and six rebounds. The Sparks outscored the Wings in paint points, 54-44, and fastbreak points, 15-12, yet Dallas recorded more bench points, 16-6, and rebounds, 33-29.
Wednesday’s game will be the first regular season matchup between the 2024 WNBA No. 1 overall draft pick, Caitlin Clark, and the No. 5 overall draft pick from Ohio State University, Jacy Sheldon. Before joining the league, Clark and Sheldon last saw each other on March 3, when Clark’s Iowa Hawkeyes defeated Sheldon’s Buckeyes, 93-83. During this game, Clark scored a game-high 35 points and passed Pete Maravich to become the NCAA’s All-Time leading scorer in college basketball history.
The Fever’s three All-Stars – Boston, Clark and Mitchell – will play side-by-side with Arike Ogunbowale on Team WNBA in the 2024 All-Star game in Phoenix on Saturday night.
Ogunbowale is currently ranked third in scoring among all players in the league, averaging 22.2 points per game, while Mitchell is tied for 10th – her highest ranking of the season so far – with 17.1 ppg and Clark is ranked 14th, her highest ranking of the season as well, with 16.8 ppg. Boston sits tied for eighth place with 8.8 rebounds per game. Fever forward NaLyssa Smith is tied for 10th in rebounds, averaging 7.6 rpg, while Wings center Teaira McCowan and Wings forward Monique Billings come in 11th and 12th place.
After leading all rookies in assists for the entirety of the season, Clark has moved into first place for assists among all players at 7.8 assists per game. Ogunbowale is tied for eighth place, averaging 5.1 apg.
