INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) \u2014 A year after winning a team prize pool of $500,000 in the WNBA Commissioner\u2019s Cup Championship, the Indiana Fever gear up for this year\u2019s Commissioner\u2019s Cup games, beginning this Thursday. <\/p>\n
The Fever took down the Minnesota Lynx, 74-59, in last year\u2019s Cup Championship game.<\/p>\n
The Commissioner\u2019s Cup is an annual in-season competition over the first few weeks of the season, with all 15 WNBA teams playing at least six designated Cup games. <\/p>\n
After the designated Cup games, the teams with the best record during Cup Play from both the Western and Eastern conferences play each other in the Cup Championship for a chance to win a team prize pool of $500,000. <\/p>\n
Fever guard Sophie Cunningham mentioned how last year\u2019s Commissioner\u2019s Cup served as a momentum boost for the Fever\u2019s season. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think it was a turning point for our team last year,\u201d Cunningham said. \u201cWe went through a lot, and just to see everyone come together, and everyone contributed, got positive reinforcement that everyone is needed. I think that\u2019s always good for a team, especially going into that time of the season and then the playoffs. It\u2019s good, but that\u2019s last year. This year\u2019s completely different, and so we\u2019ve got to dial in today and get better offensively and defensively.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Fever are currently 4-4 to begin the 2026 season and have already allowed 100 or more points in three different games this season. Cunningham alluded that this year\u2019s Commissioner\u2019s Cup games should allow them to dig deeper as a group.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s something to look forward to, a goal to reach that\u2019s in-season,\u201d Cunningham said. \u201cI think that\u2019s the whole point, a little bit more money for everybody, which is nice. I do think that it gives you something positive to look forward to and to work toward. Sometimes you need that in-season motivation.\u201d<\/p>\n
10th-year Fever guard Kelsey Mitchell expressed how the Fever shouldn\u2019t need to use this year\u2019s Commissioner\u2019s Cup as a way to find extra motivation. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t want to keep letting it come down to that, if I\u2019m being honest,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cYou don\u2019t want to keep letting it come down to, well, you got a chance. Eventually, your chances run out, and that\u2019s just how life goes. Hopefully, we don\u2019t keep hanging our hat on thinking we get a chance. I think that mentality is the shift that you guys have to see in us. Because you keep waiting and you keep waiting and eventually you\u2019re going to run out of things to wait for.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Fever\u2019s first of six Commissioner\u2019s Cup games begins against the Atlanta Dream on Thursday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) \u2014 A year after winning a team prize pool of $500,000 in the WNBA Commissioner\u2019s Cup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":682810,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-682809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=682809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/682810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=682809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=682809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=682809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}