Hobbled Fever purpose to increase Lynx’s shedding streak

The Minnesota Lynx are the only WNBA team to have clinched a playoff berth, and they are in a strong position to claim the No. 1 seed.

The injury-plagued Indiana Fever are trying to stabilize their playoff prospects as they prepare to host the Lynx on Friday at Indianapolis in the first game of a home-and-home set over three days.

The Fever (19-16) will be playing their first game since losing guard Sophie Cunningham, their most accurate 3-point shooter, to a season-ending knee injury. All-Star guard Caitlin Clark is expected to miss her 14th consecutive game because of a groin injury, and she reportedly recently sustained a bone bruise in her left ankle.

Indiana also lost two more guards (Aari McDonald and Sydney Colson) to season-ending injuries this month. The Fever shook off the Cunningham loss and rallied from a 21-point deficit to defeat the host Connecticut Sun 99-93 in overtime on Sunday.

“This group is selfless,” Indiana coach Stephanie White said. “They’re tough. They don’t care who gets the credit. They don’t care whose day it is. They’ve just got something inside of them that you can’t teach and they bring it out of each other. It allows us to go through these incredibly tough times that we’re going through and always gives us a chance.”

White said the four days between games came at a good time.

“We needed the rest. We needed the recovery,” she said. “We have players that have played heavy minutes. We needed time to recalibrate. We had to figure out who can play in certain roles and what our substitution patterns are going to be, what kind of wrinkles we can throw out there.”

The Friday game is the first of three between the teams in 19 days. Indiana won the only previous meeting, 74-59 in the Commissioner’s Cup championship game on July 1.

Minnesota (28-7) had won six games in a row entering this week before losing consecutive games for the first time all season — 85-75 at New York on Tuesday and 75-73 at Atlanta on Thursday.

“We’ll have time to work through some of this stuff, basic things,” Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said after the Thursday loss. “We weren’t good enough. We didn’t get much out of our bench. We just couldn’t put ball in the hole enough (41.4 percent shooting). I want us to be better next time we play.”

Lynx star forward Napheesa Collier (ankle) has missed the past six games but appears close to returning.

–Field Level Media