Fever advance to Commissioner’s Cup Final after physical win, outspoken postgame press conference
Indiana outlasts Connecticut, gets help from New York to clinch spot in Cup finals; Head coach Stephanie White speaks up on officiating. "Everybody's getting better, except the officials."
The Indiana Fever advanced to the WNBA Commissioner’s Cup Championship Game after handling the Connecticut Sun on Tuesday night — and with a little help from New York.
The Fever, the top seed from the Eastern Conference, will face the Minnesota Lynx on July 1 with an in-season title and a $500,000 prize pool on the line. This is the fifth year of the Commissioner’s Cup.
The team was tracking New York’s win over Atlanta from the bench, but most found out afterward when the team celebrated in the locker room. Indiana has now won four of its last five — following a three-game skid — despite never having a full roster.
“Obviously we're excited,” Caitlin Clark said after scoring 20 points in victory. “That's a big deal. And obviously New York helped us out a little bit to get there and it's a hard thing to do. Why wouldn't we celebrate that? We're getting to play for a pool of money. That's pretty fun. And you're competing to win a trophy.”
There were several other instances of fireworks Tuesday night, more than their postgame locker room celebration.
The game was physical from the opening tip. These teams don’t like each other, and they didn’t try to hide it.
It began with Jacy Sheldon (Ohio State) pressing Clark (Iowa) full court and staying physical with her all game. Then midway through the third quarter, Clark was hit by Sheldon in the eye as she tried to dribble around her at the foul line. Sheldon then stepped up to Clark, who wasn’t having it.
Then, the sequence was escalated when veteran Tina Charles shared what was on her mind, then Marina Mabrey came in and body-checked Clark to the ground.
After a nearly 10-minute review, Sheldon’s foul was upgraded to a flagrant 1. Mabrey, Charles, and Clark were assessed technical fouls.
“Honestly, the review took too long for me,” said Clark, who was signaling to the officials to hurry up on their decision. “I wanted to get playing basketball again, and that's exactly what I did in the rest of the third quarter.”