The Indiana Fever displayed a dominating performance as they beat the New York Liberty on Saturday. There was another headline in the win, as Kelsey Mitchell became the first player in Indiana Fever history to score 20 points in 10 straight games. She is only the seventh player to do so in WNBA history.

She joins an elite club that includes the likes of A’ja Wilson, Diana Taurasi, Cynthia Cooper, Maya Moore, Arike Ogunbowale and Breanna Stewart.

Wilson leads this list, having scored 20 or more points for 20 consecutive matches for the Aces. Taurasi and Stewart are distant second, each scoring 20 or more points in 12 consecutive games.

Against the Liberty, Mitchell finished the night with 33 points, shooting 10 of 14 from the field and converting 4 of her 6 shots from beyond the arc in an explosive display of offensive might. The Fever outscored and outmaneuvered the Liberty team, handing them their biggest defeat of the season. Liberty have now lost 4 of their last 5 matchups.

The win took the Fever to 5th place in the table, with a 16-10 record for the season. This would be a great morale booster for the team as they head into the All-Star break, with three of their players in Mitchell, Caitlin Clark, and Aliyah Boston named starters.

Mitchell has been the anchor for this Fever team this season. Her high usage rate of 27% indicates just how reliant the Fever are on her playmaking skills. And she is not just an efficient scorer herself. She enables others around her to get on board as well, reflected by her 15.6% assist rate, as per BasketballReference.

And Mitchell’s teammates also realize just how pivotal she has been for this team.

“She hits tough shots like that, and she gets up, and she’s calm, cool, and collected,” Aliyah Boston said in the press conference on July 18, after the Liberty match.

“So I think just as her teammates, we just wanted to show her that she’s really the greatest. And so we celebrate her in those moments.”

Indiana have often maintained that they see themselves as title contenders. With the core group of Clark, Mitchell and Boston, they do have the squad to make a deep run into the playoffs. Especially if Mitchell can maintain this consistency.

Mitchell Has Shown Consistency When Other Players Have Been Sidelined

Indiana has not struggled with getting points on the board this season, even when they have missed their main offensive options like Caitlin Clark. This is largely due to Kelsey Mitchell, who has taken that load effortlessly this season.

While Clark has missed significant game time this season due to injuries, others like Aliyah Boston, Sophie Cunningham and Myisha Hines-Allen have also missed game time. But none of that has affected Mitchell, and her scoring output has only increased as the season progressed.

At 22.9 points per game, Mitchell leads the Indiana team in scoring. And she is second in the league in points per game, behind only A’ja Wilson.

Indiana’s schedule after the All-Star break starts with a brutal, 3-game road trip across Seattle, Portland, and Minnesota, which is bound to test this team’s conditioning.

Then they face the Aces, Liberty, and Sun within a three-week window, which means Indiana must protect their home floor to maintain playoff positioning. This could be a very crucial stretch for them. And they will need Mitchell’s consistency to guide them through it.