As the injuries mounted for the Indiana Fever through the season and outside expectations diminished, Stephanie White’s message remained consistent.
“Internally, we take pride in everything that we do, and it’s not pressure but it’s opportunity,” White said. “We take every opportunity that we can to grow and to learn and this opportunity’s no different.”
Advertisement
No one would have faulted the Fever for losing in the first round of the WNBA playoffs, not after five season-ending injuries (Caitlin Clark, Aari McDonald, Sydney Colson, Sophie Cunningham, and Chloe Bibby) and a further personnel loss with Damiris Dantas’ concussion. Atlanta was fully healthy, 16-6 at home during the regular season, and playing its best basketball coming into the postseason.
Through three seasons of the best-of-three first-round format, no lower seed had advanced to the WNBA semifinals. In the 2024 postseason, no lower seed even won a game.
But Indiana saw opportunity in the adversity, and the Fever are now the first team to break that trend. A 87-85 win in Atlanta on Thursday night sent Indiana to the WNBA semifinals for the first time in a decade, where they will await the winner of Las Vegas and Seattle.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Atlanta Dream, Indiana Fever, WNBA
2025 The Athletic Media Company