The Fever finally have the MVP candidate (and contender) they were expecting

INDIANAPOLIS — A lot has gone wrong for the Fever this season. Saturday was a reminder of just how good they can look when things go right.

While it’s still early in the year, to this point, the Fever have hardly looked like the title contenders most expected. Injuries have played a massive role in that, starting at the top with Caitlin Clark.

But she returned on Saturday after being sidelined for three weeks to play the undefeated Liberty and looked like the MVP candidate many positioned her to be. Clark poured in 32 points, 25 of which came in the first half, and flirted with a triple-double while helping the Fever set a single-game franchise record for 3-pointers.

All of that added up to Indiana handing New York its first loss of the season and re-establishing itself as one of the league’s best teams.

“I knew her adrenaline was going to be high to start,” said head coach Stephanie White of Clark. “I mean, she’s been itching to get back out there.

“Did I think it was going to be a 25-point half? No. But as she so often does, when she gets hot, it’s a streak, right?” White continued. “She carried us in the first half and then everybody else carried us in the second half.”

Any questions about how Clark would re-acclimate after her first injury absence since high school were very quickly swept away. In an outburst unlike any she’s had in the WNBA, Clark buried a trio of long-range — with emphasis on long — buckets in 45 seconds in the first quarter.

“I felt good,” Clark said. “I took one in transition. That’s kind of like where I like to get to early and it’s always good to see the ball go through the hoop. And then I came down and shot another one, then I came down and shot another one and saw three in a row go in, so that gives you a lot of confidence.”

Clark did not stop there as she kept knocking down triples, connecting on six of them in the first half. Those 25 points in the opening two periods were the third-most in franchise history for any half.

For all the media attention that comes her way, Saturday was another reminder of just how good Clark is. While 25-point halves can’t be the expectation, if Clark consistently plays even near this level, she’ll insert herself into the MVP conversation sooner rather than later.

And if she’s playing at an MVP level, the Fever will be one of the league’s best teams.

For as great as Clark’s first half was, it was the start of the third quarter that the Fever highlighted postgame as the determining factor in the win. After leading 53-50 at the half, Indiana immediately gave up a 9-0 run to start the period. As a result of using a number of timeouts in the first half, the Fever did not have a spare one to call. Instead, they had to figure it out on their own.

The response was about as emphatic as they come.

After trailing 59-53 with 7:31 left in the third, the Fever went on a 25-3 run over the ensuing five minutes and 12 seconds, completely turning the game around to open up a 16-point lead.

“Our coaches told us when we were in the locker room at halftime, ‘We already used too many timeouts. We don’t really have timeouts to use, so don’t let them go on a run’ and then we let them go on a run and we knew like Steph wasn’t calling one there,” Clark said. “We had to figure out how to play through it and go on a run of our own. We talked about this in the locker room. I think that’s kind of where we grew today.

“In the past, that’s where we would crumble. It’s exactly where we crumbled in Atlanta in our last game…But today we really stuck together. We went on our own run.”

The Fever never relinquished the lead from that point on. New York would get to as close as three points in the fourth, but Indiana again responded with a 14-3 run, capped off with a Kelsey Mitchell corner 3-pointer with 2:12 left to put the Fever up 99-84, effectively ending the game.

“We understand that basketball is a game of runs and not being able to just give up in those moments,” said Lexie Hull. “So, I think just being able to trust 1-11 [on the roster] that we’re going to go out there, have each other’s back and we’re going to work through those tough times because New York’s a really good team.

“They’re going to go on runs. They’re going to have those moments where we can’t stop them for a period of time, but it’s how do we fix that? How do we change that momentum?” Hull continued. “Just really proud of our group for staying with it.”

It has been a particularly difficult opening month of the season for the Fever. Along with Clark, guard Sophie Cunningham also returned from injury against the Liberty. Sydney Colson has exited multiple games this season due to injury as well, leaving the Fever without a ballhandler available at times.

On top of that, DeWanna Bonner was not with the team on Saturday due to personal reasons. Head coach Stephanie White also missed a game this season for personal reasons.

The win over New York was then, in many ways, the light at the end of the tunnel for the Fever as they look to reassert themselves near the top of the league.

“Emotionally, it’s a relief,” White said of the win. “It’s a lift. When you go through hard times, it puts life into perspective. I think the biggest thing is that this team has been resilient and it hasn’t been easy and it’s not going to be. Like, winning is hard… And for us, this group, they stay together, they encourage one another, they draw strength from one another. I draw strength from them. I hope they draw strength from us and every single day that we take one step forward together, we’re building trust.

“There are not many teams who position themselves to win and win consistently that don’t have trust, that don’t have tight chemistry, that don’t have sacrifice — the we over the me — that don’t go through hard times and I think that this group has been resilient… I’m just really proud of them and I’m really thankful for them.”