When news broke on September 4 that Indiana Fever star guard Caitlin Clark was going to miss the rest of the 2025 WNBA season, many members of the women’s basketball community didn’t think Indiana would make the playoffs.
At that point, the Fever had a 21-20 record and were among a few teams contending for the final few spots in the WNBA postseason. However, they were coming off two straight losses and were still trying to figure out their rotations in the wake of having lost Sophie Cunningham, Aari McDonald, and Sydney Colson to season-ending injuries in August.
However, not only did the Fever ultimately win their final three regular season games to advance to the 2025 WNBA playoffs, but they upset the Atlanta Dream in the first round and then took the Las Vegas Aces to the absolute brink in the WNBA Semifinals, battling them for five games before ultimately coming up just short in overtime of the winner-take-all Game 5.
And there’s a case to be made that the Fever would have beaten Las Vegas (who went on to win the league championship) and advance to the WNBA Finals if not for Kelsey Mitchell suffering a leg injury earlier in that Game 5 and having to sit out in overtime.
Sep 30, 2025; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; Indiana Fever guard Kelsey Mitchell (0) dribbles against the Las Vegas Aces during the first quarter of game five of the second round of the 2025 WNBA Playoffs at Michelob Ultra Arena. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images | Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images
Sophie Cunningham Gets Honest About Fever’s Need for Making WNBA Finals
Assuming Indiana can bring most of their key veteran players (all of whom are free agents this offseason) back to the team for 2025, one would assume the squad is poised for another deep postseason run.
That is, so long as one thing happens, which Sophie Cunningham conveyed when she was asked, “When you consider the Fever and potentially returning, what is missing from that roster to make a Finals run?” during an interview with Annie Costabile of Front Office Sports that was published on November 14.
“Honestly, I think the missing piece is just being healthy. I think that’s the name of the game. And even when we weren’t healthy, we were a couple calls away from making it to the Finals. And so, for us, I think just the amount of adversity that we had through that we went through this past year, I think it’s setting us up,” Cunningham responded.
“There is a lot of uncertainty, like you said, with CBA, with the money, if we’re even going to have a league next year. And then if people want to come back, we’re trying to keep our core together… And so, if we do, I think that we just have to stay healthy. We have to keep building, day by day. And I think we have a good shot,” she added.
Sophie Cunningham rarely holds back. Yesterday I caught up with the soon to be free agent to talk CBA, the new international league “Project B”, and how the WNBA’s increased exposure is paying dividends.https://t.co/b43i7Tj3jP
— Annie Costabile (@AnnieCostabile) November 14, 2025
Cunningham isn’t alone in thinking the Fever could be a real title contender in 2026, so long as the team’s star players re-sign and can stay on the court.
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