The Indiana Fever have only one regular-season WNBA game left against the top-seeded Minnesota Lynx on Thursday. The stakes were high, with them needing to win the game to have a shot at securing the No. 4 seed and get home-court advantage in the playoffs. But the pursuit ended with circumstances outside their control after the Atlanta Dream’s 83-65 Wednesday night win over the New York Liberty. With that potential advantage out of the picture, one insider believes Fever head coach Stephanie White should switch priorities, especially considering Caitlin Clark’s situation.

That suggestion came from Fever insider Tony East, who, ahead of the showdown against the Lynx, suggested that White should consider reducing the workload, or even resting, the starters.

“Just my opinion, but I’d consider resting starters as the Fever tomorrow. Certainly a much smaller minutes load,” he wrote on X.

It’s an intriguing suggestion considering where Indiana currently stands. Irrespective of Thursday’s result, the Fever will start their playoff run on the road, with the Dream having secured a Top 4 seed (30-14) that the two teams were contending for. Even if the Fever wins against the Lynx, they will improve to 29-15 and still be short of the Dream.

With that in mind, East’s suggestion to rest the starters seems much more reasonable. Moreover, Caitlin Clark’s status ahead of the team’s game against the Lynx is “probable,” a designation she has taken on for the 35th time this season, per James Boyd of The Athletic.

Clark’s injury status has been a topic of concern this entire season, starting on May 20. During the Fever’s game against the Portland Fire, Clark did not take the court due to back soreness, despite not being listed on the injury report. The WNBA even sent a warning Indiana’s way, which caused her to start appearing on the injury report regularly.

It got bad enough that Clark had to exit a game against the Phoenix Mercury on June 24 early, and missed a few games before returning on July 8 against the Los Angeles Sparks on a minutes restriction. However, in the 21 games after that, she has been playing at an MVP level, averaging 24.8 points and 9.0 assists on 47.4% from the field and 39.4% from the three-point range.

Notably, the Fever wouldn’t be the first team to reduce the workload on their starters during the final stretch of the season. Their opponents on September 22 were the Lynx, who saw no starter play more than 19 minutes, as head coach Cheryl Reeve pulled the first five from the game for most of the final two and a half quarters, when Indiana had built a massive lead.

Minnesota had already clinched the #1 seed this season, which meant that the previous game, as well as the upcoming matchup against the Fever, didn’t have any impact on their season. On top of this, Olivia Miles, Minnesota’s record-breaking rookie, is also sidelined with a calf injury.

Clark had hoped Miles would be available for the second matchup between the two sides this week following the Fever’s win over the Lynx.

“I hope Liv plays, and I think it will be a fun one,” she said after the game on Sep. 22.

Regardless, the Fever will only have two days between the regular-season finale and their first playoff series. With Clark on the injury report and Indiana’s seeding picture largely settled, the starters might not need to be exerted anymore this season.