The Indiana Fever are 7-8 to start the 2025 WNBA season. That’s not where they expected to be, and it’s definitely not how they started. What looked like a promising campaign has quickly turned into a stretch of disappointing losses, injury setbacks, and lineup changes. And now, they’ll have to move forward without one of their biggest offseason additions, DeWanna Bonner. But here comes one of those big moments that had hype before the season even tipped off: Indiana vs. Dallas. A game that was supposed to bring together two of the league’s most talked-about stars on one court.

Before that, though, Indiana ran into more trouble against the Los Angeles Sparks. They had the game in their hands through the first half, looking sharper and more in control. But things fell apart late. The Fever couldn’t close it out and eventually lost 75-85. After the game, Sophie Cunningham spoke about just how tough things have been and why they’re still staying hopeful.

“I think so far this season we’ve had a lot of distractions – you can call it some injuries – but I think that’s really good for us. Let’s go through adversity early, let’s learn from it. Good news is we’re not going to peak too early, so I mean, that’s a positive,” she said. But she was also clear that their brutal calendar isn’t a scapegoat either. “It’s not an excuse. Everyone’s playing back-to-back. Everyone has this kind of rough schedule.”

Still, for the Fever, that schedule has been extra rough. Even head coach Stephanie White highlighted it after their win over Connecticut. “We’re also preparing for a brutal stretch of six games in 11 days where we go from the West Coast to come home and back‑to‑back, then back to Dallas,” she said. That kind of constant travel 0 coast to coast with minimal rest and almost no rhythm – can wear a team down fast.

To make it worse, their May and June stretch already featured multiple back-to-back road trips, long hauls between cities like Seattle and Las Vegas, and a jam-packed lineup even before July began. And right in the middle of that chaos, they lost key players. Caitlin Clark picked up a quad strain, and both Sophie Cunningham and Sydney Colson were sidelined with knocks.

Then came DeWanna Bonner’s departure. And now another Clark injury. But despite all this, the Fever aren’t backing down. Cunningham made it clear, “For us, it’s…we get another opportunity tomorrow and we got to capitalize on it. Dallas is a team that’s hungry for a win, and we talk about this…we are circled on everybody’s schedule. No one likes us, right? So everyone in our locker room, that’s the only type of people that we have that we can lean on.”

Maybe “no one likes us” is a bit much, but one thing’s for sure: teams know the Fever are legit contenders. To add to it, Friday’s matchup has already had so much attention. It was billed as Caitlin Clark vs. Paige Bueckers, two of the biggest names from the new era. But with Clark’s injury, there’s no guarantee we’ll see that showdown.

Still, Dallas is very much in the fight. In fact, they’re coming into this one with their best stretch of the season – three wins in their last four games. After shocking Atlanta, they’ll now look to start their second win streak of 2025 when they host Indiana. But Dallas has their own injury troubles, too. Guard DiJonai Carrington has missed the past two games due to a rib injury and didn’t practice on Thursday. A few hours later, she was officially listed as doubtful for Friday’s game.

As for Clark, her status is still up in the air. There’s no confirmation yet on whether she’ll be on the court. Still, the matchup may be missing a few headliners, but the stakes are still high. Let’s see if we get the iconic matchup and find out who comes out on top. Maybe this is the moment it all comes together for Fever because this loss has fueled them, as it has both the coaches and players feeling like something was missing. 

Sophie Cunningham sounds off as Fever let another one slip away

Sophie Cunningham and the Indiana Fever were handed their eighth loss of the 2025 season, and this one felt all too familiar. Just like in their previous two defeats, the Fever led in the fourth quarter, only to watch it all unravel. That makes it three straight second-half collapses after holding double-digit leads. And Cunningham has had enough.

The veteran, who finished with 10 points on 3-of-8 shooting, didn’t hold back when asked about the team’s ongoing struggles. “Man, I think we’re trying to figure it out. You’re right, we’ve had double-digit leads going into the fourth, and then we just let it slip,” Cunningham said. “For us, we got to be better from top to bottom. We have to have better energy, better focus.” She believes it’s all about consistency.

“We’re trying to give each other grace and patience, but at some point, you got to dig in and say enough is enough,” she declared.  The frustration was echoed by head coach Stephanie White, who didn’t sugarcoat the team’s inability to finish games strong.  “I think that we haven’t shown a killer instinct yet. We have had a tendency to relax in those moments instead of, for lack of a better term, go for the kill,” White said.

With the loss, Indiana drops to 7-8 on the season, now tied with the Washington Mystics and sitting just a few games ahead of the struggling Chicago Sky and Connecticut Sun in the Eastern Conference standings. With eight games left before the All-Star break on July 19, the clock is ticking for Indiana to turn things around. If they want to live up to their preseason hype, they’ll need to find that missing edge.