After enjoying a five-game winning streak, the Indiana Fever have now suffered back-to-back losses, falling 102-109 to the New York Liberty on Saturday. And while Indiana has already secured its spot in the playoffs, a late-game sequence involving Caitlin Clark has quickly caught attention online.
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With 24 seconds left on the clock, Clark was sent to the free-throw line after a personal foul from Pauline Astier. The Liberty held a five-point lead at the time, meaning two made free throws would have brought the Fever within one possession. However, Clark missed both attempts, and according to WNBA writer Robin Lundberg on X, that sequence appeared to leave the Fever star frustrated and tired after the game.
“Caitlin Clark appeared fairly frustrated and tired in the postgame press conference but said there were ‘no excuses’ with the schedule. She spun the back-to-back as a positive to bounce back from the loss.”
Had the 24-year-old converted both of her shots, Indiana would have had a chance to make the final seconds interesting. Instead, New York stretched its advantage from there and ultimately handed the Fever their 14th loss of the season. But with the regular season entering its final stretch, there is little value in dwelling on what could have been. As Lundberg pointed out, Clark is already looking at the back-to-back losses as an opportunity to bounce back, despite appearing dejected by the loss.
“There are no excuses. Yeah, our schedule’s tough, and I think we play more back-to-backs than just about anybody in the league. But it is what it is,” Caitlin Clark said during her postgame interview. “And Chicago’s playing really good basketball. I think for us, you have to look at it in a positive way. We’re coming off of a loss. It’s a great opportunity for us to go and finish this road trip on a win. That’s how I see it. And yeah, everybody’s tired, everybody’s sore, who cares. Figure out a way to make yourself feel better and suit up and go play.”
It is worth noting that even in the loss, there was a positive takeaway for Indiana. The Fever committed just nine turnovers, which is a significant improvement from the sloppier offensive performances that have hurt them at times this season. So one of the biggest differences between the two teams came at the free-throw line, where the Fever converted just 50% of their attempts while the Liberty made 83% of theirs.
This proved to be costly because the Fever still got plenty of production from their core. Caitlin Clark, Kelsey Mitchell and Aliyah Boston all finished with 20-plus points, showing that Indiana has the firepower to keep up with one of the league’s top teams. So if the Fever can clean up those smaller mistakes and turn more of those opportunities into points, they could become an even tougher team to deal with come playoff time.
Next up, the Fever will face the Chicago Sky before returning home, giving them one more chance to end their road trip with a win. ESPN has given Indiana a 65.1% chance of winning that matchup, so after two straight losses, the Fever will be looking to make the most of it.