2025 WNBA playoffs: Indiana Fever clinch berth for second straight season despite Caitlin Clark injury, others

Despite getting just 13 games from Caitlin Clark and losing five players to season-ending injuries, the Indiana Fever have earned a spot in the 2025 WNBA playoffs. The Fever clinched their berth on Sunday with a 94-65 win over the Washington Mystics. 

After a competitive start to the game, the Fever pulled ahead in the middle of the second quarter and never looked back. In a completely dominant second half, the Fever held the Mystics to just 27 points en route to a 29-point win — their second largest of the season. 

Now 23-20, the Fever have set a franchise record for wins in a season (the 44-game season is the longest in league history) and secured their first winning campaign since 2015. They are also locked into a top-seven seed. It’s still possible they could jump the Golden State Valkyries for the No. 6 seed, but they will need to win their final game on Tuesday against the league-leading Minnesota Lynx and hope the Valkyries lose their final two games.

After toiling at the bottom of the standings for nearly a decade, the Fever made the playoffs last season for the first time since 2016 thanks in large part to Clark’s arrival. Instead of slow-playing their rebuild, they overhauled the entire organization this offseason to try and build a contender. 

Kelly Krauskopf and Amber Cox were brought in to run the front office, Stephanie White was hired as coach and half a dozen new players, including DeWanna Bonner, Natasha Howard and Sophie Cunningham, arrived via either free agency, trades or the draft.

Heading into the season, the Fever were openly talking about competing for a championship, and they started their campaign with a 35-point win over the Chicago Sky. Clark recorded a triple-double that day and Bonner moved into third place on the league’s all-time scoring list. 

Little went right after that. Bonner quit on the team after nine appearances and five players, including Clark, suffered season-ending injuries:

Clark, most notably, was limited to just 13 appearances and never played more than five consecutive games. While she averaged 16.5 points, five rebounds and 8.8 assists, she shot just 36.7% from the field, including 27.9% from 3-point range. Incredibly, she was just 2 of 35 from behind the arc on the road.

The Fever did win the Commissioner’s Cup championship for the first time in franchise history without Clark, but have been significantly worse without her overall. They went 8-5 when Clark played and had a plus-9.1 net rating with her on the floor, and are 15-15 when she doesn’t play with a plus-1.3 net rating with her off the floor.

Anything can happen in the WNBA’s best-of-three first round, but the Fever have virtually no hope of winning a title without Clark. They have the worst championship odds (+20000, per Caesars) of any team currently in playoff position.