Fever handle Fire in wire-to-wire win, move above .500
Aliyah Boston scored 24 points in her return, Lexie Hull stayed hot from deep, and the Fever improved to 3-2 despite Caitlin Clark’s late scratch.
The Indiana Fever did not provide the Portland Fire a warm welcome-back-to-the-league experience.
The Fire, one of two expansion teams, were in Indiana on Wednesday for their first road game of the season after opening with a four-game homestand. The Fever led 28-20 after the first quarter, outscored Portland in each of the first three quarters, and never trailed in a 90-73 win.
Indiana got it done easily, even without Caitlin Clark — the face of the WNBA.
She was a late scratch, added to the injury report with a “back” designation less than two hours before tipoff. Head coach Stephanie White then shared pregame that Clark did not participate in Tuesday’s practice. Media is allowed in for a brief portion at the beginning of practice and she was around. (Here’s my practice report from Tuesday.)
White said the All-Star guard received treatment and then completed a workout. They had two days between games.
“Not everybody that doesn’t practice or gets a pro day is on the injury report, so that happens all the time,” White said postgame. “She wasn’t listed on the injury report earlier because we expected her to play.”
Better communication and transparency from all teams through the league’s daily injury reporting would benefit both fans and the media.
Coincidentally, WNBA PR sent an email at 3:34 p.m. ET on Wednesday alerting media to a new game-status reporting system, which includes injury reports every 15 minutes on game days.
OK … back to basketball.
All-Star center Aliyah Boston returned after missing the first game of her career on Sunday — ending a streak of 275 consecutive appearances dating back to high school. She led all players with 24 points and eight rebounds, making 8 of 11 shots, including 2 of 4 from beyond the arc.
“It felt pretty good,” Boston said. “I think for me, just continuing to manage that and be ready every single night I step on the floor.”
One memorable sequence came when Boston knocked down a 3-pointer, then followed it up with a layup on the next possession after sealing deep in the paint. That pushed the Fever lead to 26, their largest of the game. Portland had no answer for her.
“She shot with confidence, she played with confidence,” White said. “Her physicality was really good. I thought her balance was really good. And she did exactly what we need her to do.
“She takes control of the offense when we need her to, breaking the press when we need her to. But I thought overall just her conviction in everything she did was really good. I was so happy that she wasn’t hesitating shooting the basketball.”
White said before the season that she wanted Boston to shoot more 3-pointers, and this was a successful example of that. Boston can also relieve pressure on the guards when opponents press full court or trap the ball-handler.
The Fever (3-2) assisted on 75% of their field goals (21 of 28), a high mark that typically leads to success.
“That’s the thing that we’ve just been continuing to work on — keeping the ball popping, getting it to the second side, making the right pass on time and on target — and we did a great job of that,” Boston said.
Seven of those assists — along with zero turnovers — came from Indy native Ty Harris, whose workload was managed during training camp as she returns from season-ending surgery on her left knee almost one year ago.
Harris spent two seasons with this coaching staff in Connecticut, so she knows exactly what they want. That allowed her to fit right in after starting in place of Clark.
“She’s steady,” White said. “So I felt good about her coming in and being able to handle the ball against the pressure and get us where we were supposed to get to.
“She had to play a lot of hard minutes against the press so I’m not surprised at her shooting percentage (0 for 6) because she’s a great shooter. But I thought she did exactly what we needed.”
The Fever also shot better from range. Excluding guard Raven Johnson’s 1-for-8 night, the rest of the team combined to go 8 for 20 from deep.
And Lexie Hull, the glue of the team, beamed postgame when asked about her shooting. She went 4 for 4 from 3-point range and finished with 16 points and eight rebounds. She also took a charge — something she seems to do nightly.
“It feels good to see the ball go through the net,” Hull said with a big smile. “I think just getting more games under our belt, getting more comfortable, building that chemistry, knowing where those shots are coming from.
“I feel like that’s something we drill a lot in practice, and we got a lot of the shots that we wanted — a lot of shots that we walked through. So obviously it feels good. AB hitting two threes tonight, 2 for 4. We will take that every night.”
Boston, sitting to her left, chimed in:
“Girl, you were 4 for 4. You were 100% from the field.”
Hull laughed and replied:
“We’ll take 50%, we’ll take 100. It’s good by me.”
Hull, who played in every game last season, shot 36.7% from distance after shooting 47.1% in 2024. She remains one of the better outside shooters in the WNBA.
However, she was not a full participant in camp because of hamstring tightness. Now, she says she’s “good — back to normal.”
“She’s one of the toughest players I’ve ever been around,” White said in her second season coaching Hull. “She’s tough, she plays her butt off. She makes the right plays on the defensive end of the floor. She relishes doing those things that energize our team.
“… Everybody has their role, and Lexie’s the energizer bunny for us. Those plays give us energy.”
Kelsey Mitchell poured in 21 points and added four assists, and no one logged 30 minutes. Most starters played about 21 minutes, which is significant with Friday marking the team’s fifth game in 10 days.
Portland’s 73 points were the fewest Indiana has allowed through five games this season. The Fever now have their first winning streak of the year and are above .500 for the first time.
“It’s really starting to build continuity on both ends of the floor,” White said. “There are times where we are disjointed. So I do think it’s putting one foot in front of the other.
“Yes, we have some returning pieces. But a lot of those returning pieces are learning how to play together again. And we have a lot of new pieces trying to fine-tune what we’re gonna do and build connectivity on both ends of the floor.
“It doesn’t happen overnight. … And I’m pleased with our progression.”
After hosting Golden State on Friday, the Fever will enjoy five days between games before playing in San Francisco next Thursday to complete an early-season home-and-home.
Clark is expected back, and after Indy 500 fans enjoy Carb Day at the track, Friday’s game should make for a fun start to race weekend in Indianapolis.
