For the Indiana Fever, it was starting to feel like a no-win situation. When Caitlin Clark plays, teams attack her defensively, and the offense sputters late. When she sits, the scoring falls off a cliff and even Aliyah Boston—normally a rock—isn’t the same. They dropped a winnable game to the Valkyries with Clark. Then they collapsed against the Sparks without her, despite Boston grabbing a double-double. So what exactly is working for this team? Well, that was the looming question heading into Dallas on Friday. And for once, the answer didn’t follow the usual script.

The Indiana Fever (8-8) picked up a strong 94–86 road win over the Dallas Wings on Friday night, marking head coach Stephanie White’s 100th career victory. Indiana came out blazing, hitting their first seven shots and building a 33–13 lead by the end of the first quarter. Kelsey Mitchell set the tone early with 10 points, while Aliyah Boston and Natasha Howard added key contributions. Dallas made a late push and briefly took the lead, but Indiana’s defense held firm down the stretch to close it out.

That blazing start caught everyone’s attention, including the broadcast booth. As the Fever dominated the first quarter, the commentators said, “Indiana, what a first quarter. They have only missed two field goal attempts!” The admiration only grew: “They were flawless in their execution… I thought they were going to come out with more energy, more effort. I’ve never seen the Fever play defense like this… they came out much faster, and Dallas hasn’t recovered yet.” And then came the foreshadowing: “This might just be a preview of what playoff Fever defense is gonna look like—whether they have Caitlin or they don’t have Caitlin on the floor.”

The milestones poured in, too. Aari McDonald earned her first start with Indiana and delivered 13 points and 6 assists. The team’s 33-point first quarter was their highest of the season, and their 56 first-half points tied for the fifth-most in franchise history. Mitchell dropped 32, extended her double-digit scoring streak to 16 games, became the third Fever player this season with a 30-point game, and surpassed 500 career rebounds, making her the fourth-fastest player in WNBA history to reach 4,000 points, 500 rebounds, 500 assists, and 500 threes. Natasha Howard posted her 51st career double-double with 15 points and 13 rebounds in her return to Dallas.

Early in the season, the Indiana Fever looked like a team ready to set the tone on defense. Through their first five games, they held a top-3 defensive rating in the league at 93.9—yes, top three. Even with Caitlin Clark sidelined due to a quad injury, the offense was still humming along in the top six. But that defensive wall cracked against the then-winless Sun, who erupted for 85 points at Gainbridge Fieldhouse—just their second-highest scoring game of the season. To make things worse, Indiana finished that night with only eight active players after both Sydney Colson and Sophie Cunningham exited with injuries, eventually falling 85–83. Still, head coach Stephanie White remained clear-eyed: “On the defensive end of the floor in particular, we’re going to be a work in progress,” she said before facing her former team.

Despite the bumps, the potential is right there, and it starts with Aliyah Boston and Lexie Hull. Boston, second only to A’ja Wilson in blocked shots (trailing her by just 0.1 per game), anchors the paint with elite timing and basketball IQ. Add in Hull’s perimeter pressure, and the Fever have the foundation of a defense that can cause serious problems. As White put it, “Offensively, we’ve had pieces of our rotation out of the lineup… so we know we’re going to be a work in progress offensively.” But with this kind of defensive backbone, especially during injury stretches, Indiana knows exactly where to lean. 

Skip Bayless weighs in as Caitlin Clark battles with slump, injury, and sky-high expectations

Caitlin Clark is officially in the toughest shooting stretch of her young WNBA career. After torching the Liberty for a career-high 32 points on June 1—including a scorching 7-of-14 from three—she looked every bit the superstar she was projected to be. She followed that up by going 4-for-6 from deep against the Connecticut Sun. But then, the slump hit. Over her past three games, Clark has gone just 1-for-23 from beyond the arc. That’s no exaggeration—1 of 23. The noise has grown louder, and even one of her biggest longtime supporters couldn’t stay silent.

Skip Bayless, who’s been singing Clark’s praises since her Iowa days, addressed her cold streak on Friday. “I’ve raved and raved and raved about her, but now I’ve got to be honest,” Bayless said. “She is officially into a deep, deep three-point shooting slump. It’s the worst three-point shooting stretch in WNBA history. She’s over three games, one for her last 23 from three. It’s just getting hard to watch.” And he backed it with numbers. Clark’s current three-point percentage sits at 29.5%, ranking her 55th among 61 qualified shooters in the league. She’s tied for the WNBA lead in assists per game (6.9), but also leads in turnovers—223 total, five more than Angel Reese, who’s second. 

She’s also now missed two straight games with a left groin injury—first against the Sparks on Thursday and again Friday night versus Dallas. This comes just weeks after returning from a quad injury that sidelined her for five games. Head coach Stephanie White spoke on her status Thursday night: “I think it’s very much a day-to-day thing with how she responds to treatment… I stay in my lane and let our strength and conditioning and our athletic training staff do what they do best.” Bayless added, “It just seems like great shooters don’t go through these kind of prolonged slumps… I’m sure some of the veteran stars that have criticized her are shrugging and saying ‘told you,’ when they should be rooting like mad for her to snap out of her slump.”

Still, even in a slump, Clark’s impact on the Fever and the league can’t be denied. In just two WNBA seasons, she’s averaged 19.0 points, 8.5 assists, and 5.6 rebounds over 49 regular-season games. She’s already been named Rookie of the Year and selected for an All-Star Game. This stretch may be tough, but for a player already rewriting the record books, it’s just one chapter in a much bigger story.