The Indiana Fever were aware that every game after the FIBA World Cup break mattered, as it would decide seeding. They dominated the Toronto Tempo in the first game after the break. However, the script flipped in just two days when the No. 7 Washington Mystics beat the No. 5 Indiana on Sunday. They came out with a brutal 16-point (93-77) loss and a lot of questions to address before they start their 2026 playoff campaign.
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“Where to begin in this game? I suppose the beginning of the game would be the right answer. But there’s so many pockets of this game, little things that happened that were just weird and strange.”
“Quite frankly, if you’re the Fever, poor, awful, whatever word you want to use. They got embarrassed,” Fever insider Tony East said in his postgame report on YouTube.
During the 93-77 loss, Indiana was poor on both ends of the floor. They combined for just 30 points in the first half and shot poorly, which included just 11 points in the second quarter. On the other hand, the Mystics opened the game with 34 points in the first quarter. The Fever missed all of their first five shot attempts in the game, while the Mystics made four straight 3-pointers in the first quarter. They shot 64.7% of their shots in the first half.
After the Mystics took a 21-point lead in the first half, the Fever came with a response. They scored 31 points in the third quarter alone, more than the first and the second quarter combined. However, despite that scoring run, the Fever were never able to get their rhythm that could have saved them in the fourth quarter.
“There were so many fouls…” East added. “15 fouls were called in the third quarter. It was crazy how many whistles there were in that quarter.”
“Fouls break up rhythm and make it impossible to go on a lengthy run. So the Fever would get a little closer and a little closer, but never enough that it felt like momentum was shifting or they had solved some problem.”
Perhaps the biggest takeaway from the game was how lethargic Indiana was since the start of the game. They simply didn’t seem too invested in the game. For the 12th-best offensive team in the league to shoot over 64 percent in the first half wasn’t something that anyone had expected despite the Fever’s poor defense. However, East also credited the Mystics as they played a very special game from the first quarter.
“The Mystics’ offense was spectacular early in this game…Their offense was clicking. They got great play from George Amoore and Sonia Citron, but their bigs were the story. Kiki Iriafen played quite well. Shakira Austin played quite well.”
All four of the starters played excellent scoring in double digits. Iriafen led the team on two fronts. She had team highs of 21 points and 14 rebounds. Austin also recorded her double-double with 20 points and 10 rebounds, alongside 5 assists and 2 steals. Citron and Amoore added 16 and 11 points, respectively.
The Fever played a two-player offense, making it easy for the Mystics to limit their offense. Caitlin Clark took 20 shots to score 25 points. Kelsey Mitchell took the same number of shots to reach 22 points. Except for Raven Johnson, all of the Fever players were on the negative side of the plus/minus, including all of Indiana’s starters. The Fever shot 37% from the field, including 21% from the 3-point line.
The Fever needed every game to get themselves into the top four spots to get a home-court advantage against their first-round opponent. However, it doesn’t seem like they will be able to do so. Their last two remaining games of the regular season are against the top-seeded Minnesota Lynx.
Clark and Co. are just one game ahead of the Mystics, the New York Liberty, and the Dallas Wings (all with a 26-16 record). If they lose both games against the Lynx, it could be a big blow for their playoff aspirations.