On Tuesday night, Caitlin Clark and Co. secured a win over the No. 1-seeded Minnesota Lynx. It was a game where everything just clicked for the Fever team, but just when it looked like they knew how to find their footing, Indiana ended its 2026 WNBA regular season with a defensive meltdown, and reporters are not happy with that.
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This discussion was headed by veteran reporter and author of Caitlin Clark: From the Logo, Robin Lundberg, who took to X to express his displeasure with the team.
“Fever’s defense is atrocious. They still don’t know where to rotate or help. Gotta hope no stakes playing in tonight,” Robin Lundberg wrote on X.
Even Indiana Fever beat reporter Scott Agness called out the team’s slow start.
“Very slow start for the Fever. Four points in 6+ mins. Trailing 21-4. Turning it over and missing shots.”
The Fever started off the game with one of their worst starts of the season. Until a little over eight minutes into the first quarter, they were limited to just four points before Tyasha Harris made a 24-foot three-point jumper. But even with that three, they were nowhere close to what the Lynx did in those eight minutes. The Fever also turned over the ball two times in the first quarter to end the first 10 minutes 13-32.
Now, this could have been just a bad start, and with two of the league’s top scorers – Caitlin Clark and Kelsey Mitchell – many thought the Fever could turn the game around. But the second quarter ended up being no different. The Fever scored only 19 points to the Lynx’s 30 and added three fouls and two turnovers.
At halftime, with the Lynx leading 62-32, Indiana Fever beat reporter Tony East took to X and revealed that these were the most points the Fever have allowed a team to score in the first 20 minutes throughout this season.
“Lynx with 62 points. That’s the most the Fever have allowed in one half this season. Previous high was 60 against Dallas. Yuck. They’re down 30 at halftime. Think the starters should be done for the night/season,” he wrote.
“Looks like Kelsey Mitchell’s streak of 20-point games will come to an end tonight,” two-time Sports Emmy Award winner Natalie Esquire added.
She turned out to be correct, as Mitchell, who has been one of the most consistent scorers on this team and hasn’t scored less than 20 points since early June in any game, was limited to just 10 points. Even Caitlin Clark had one of the worst performances in her career as she dropped just two points on 1-of-12 shooting from the field.
This first half of the game dictated what the second would look like, as the Lynx never took their foot off the gas. The Fever mounted a fourth-quarter comeback, scoring 25 points to the Lynx’s 10, but it was just too late as Minnesota ended the game at 86-66.
Losing a game is one thing, but losing it by a 20-point margin is another, and according to Agness, this is now the largest loss of the season for the Indiana Fever.
“Before tonight, the Fever’s largest loss of the season was by 17 in Atlanta on June 20. It was also the last time Kelsey Mitchell didn’t score 20+ points. 96 days later, after record consistency, Mitchell’s streak will end at 27 straight games,” he posted.
This is not the regular-season ending the Fever expected, especially knowing that they beat this very team just 48 hours ago. But Caitlin Clark and Co. will have a chance to redeem themselves in the playoffs, as they have already clinched their berth in the postseason, despite now falling to the sixth position on the leaderboard.