The Indiana Fever’s postseason seeding hopes hung in the balance as they played the league’s top-rated team, the Minnesota Lynx, but during a timeout, Caitlin Clark still caught Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve’s attention on the sideline. Despite the crucial matchup, the Fever guard and Reeve found the time to share a sweet exchange.
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During the first quarter, with 2:03 left on the clock, Caitlin Clark is seen standing near the Lynx bench during a play pause, right next to their head coach, Cheryl Reeve. She smiles and seems to call out to the coach, who was arguing with a referee, and as the camera pans over to Reeve, it shows her looking away from Clark, smiling while crossing her arms.
The footage was caught on the ESPN broadcast, which was clipped and posted to X.
The matchup is a particularly important one for the Fever, who are trying to climb up from the #5 seed in the standings to secure home-court advantage in the playoffs. The team has one more game after this one, which is a rematch against the Lynx.
Right now, the Fever are a game and a half behind the Atlanta Dream. To improve their standing, they need the Dream to lose their game against the New York Liberty, and the Las Vegas Aces to lose both of their final games, which would cause a three-way tie between the teams, with Indiana holding the tiebreaker.
Thankfully for the Fever, the Lynx were without rookie standout and starting point guard Olivia Miles, who sat the game out due to a left calf injury. Despite being questionable leading up to the game, Reeve revealed in the pregame conference that Miles would not be taking the floor. That caused a scoring drought the Lynx were not able to overcome, leading to the Fever picking up an important 96-77 win against the top seed.
It was a major bounce-back night for the Fever after their loss to the Washington Mystics. Caitlin Clark led the Fever’s scoring with a game-high 27 points while dishing out nine assists, grabbing seven rebounds, and a season-high four steals. Just a few days ago, during the team’s previous game against the Mystics, Clark shot just 6-for-20 from the field, compared to the 9-for-18 she logged tonight.
Surprisingly, none of the Lynx starters scored above double digits or logged more than 19 minutes of playtime, as the team seemingly decided to take their loss early, leaning heavily on bench pieces. They were led in scoring by Chloe Bibby, who finished the game with 15 points, all of which came from beyond the three-point line. Not having Rookie of the Year hopeful Olivia Miles seems to have severely hampered the Lynx’s offense against the Fever.
Now, all Caitlin Clark and the Fever have to do is wait for their final game of the season in Minneapolis.