Fever vs. Fire: Caitlin Clark's Fourth Career Triple-Double Fuels Indiana's Fifth Straight Win, 112-98

Portland threw a party on Friday night. A Fire-record 19,959 filled Moda Center, the game was a sellout, and the home team came out ready to enjoy it. Then Caitlin Clark showed up with a calculator.

Clark's line read 26 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists, the fourth triple-double of her career. Kelsey Mitchell matched her with 26, and the Indiana Fever won 112-98 for a fifth straight victory. At this point, Indiana scoring 100 feels less like a goal than a default setting.

Portland Punched First

The Fire had every reason to feel good early. Sophie Cunningham's 3 put Indiana up 14-8, but Portland answered with eight straight to lead 16-14, and the opening quarter stayed a tug-of-war until Clark drained a 23-footer at the horn for a 27-25 Fever lead.

Portland pushed right back. Megan DiLeo's 3 made it 36-30, and a Nyadiew Puoch layup stretched the margin to 40-33, the Fire's biggest lead of the night. That was roughly when Indiana got bored. Over the rest of the half the Fever turned that seven-point hole into a 56-47 cushion, with Clark scoring eight in the quarter to reach 17 by the break.

The third was a demolition. Indiana scored 34 points, Monique Billings and Mitchell each had 11 of them, and the Fever carried a 90-72 lead into the fourth. Carleton refused to go quietly, pulling Portland within 98-88 on a 3 with 4:08 left and then within 100-93 on a running layup. That was the closest anyone would get. Mitchell went to the line, Makayla Timpson scored, Mitchell hit a pull-up, Aliyah Boston made two free throws, and an 8-0 run made it 108-93. Portland's crowd, to its credit, had already gotten its money's worth.

The 12-0 That Flipped It

The game turned in the last two minutes of the first half and carried over into the second. With Indiana clinging to a 48-47 lead, Boston scored twice, Cunningham added a running layup, Billings made two free throws, and then Billings and Mitchell scored early in the third. That's 12 straight points, and it turned a one-possession game into 60-47 with 9:21 still left in the period. Portland never got closer than seven the rest of the way.

Everything Indiana does well showed up in that stretch. Four different players scored during it, and Clark assisted two of the baskets without scoring a point herself. Nobody on the floor needed to be the hero for more than one possession.

The Stars Did Star Things

Clark did all of this on nine shots. She made five of them, went 14 of 17 at the line and pulled down all 10 of her rebounds on the defensive end, which is how you finish a game-best plus-23 while barely looking at the rim. According to the Fever, the triple-double tied her with Sabrina Ionescu for the third most in WNBA history. The team also says the night made her the fastest player in league history past 1,500 points and 650 assists, needing 78 games, with Sue Bird's 116 as the old mark. She now has 1,524 points and 651 assists, which remains a ridiculous sentence about a player with 78 games on her résumé.

Mitchell was her usual flamethrower self, going 9 of 21 with four 3-pointers. The Fever say it was her 13th straight game with at least 20 points, tying Diana Taurasi for the second-longest such streak in WNBA history, and that one of those 3s moved her past Tina Thompson into sixth on the league's all-time list. She also closed July at 27.2 points per game over 10 games, which the team calls a franchise record for a single month.

The supporting cast might have been the scariest part. Timpson set a career high with 15 points on 7-of-8 shooting off the bench, Billings had 15 and seven rebounds, Cunningham hit three 3s on her way to 13, and Boston's 14 points, nine rebounds, six assists, five steals and two blocks made her the best all-around player nobody will be talking about tomorrow. Six Fever players reached 13 points, which the team calls a single-game franchise record.

Carleton was terrific for Portland, with 26 points on 9-of-14 shooting and seven 3s in 11 tries. Carla Leite had 20 points and 12 assists, though her seven turnovers fed the very transition game the Fire could least afford. Karlie Samuelson added 13.

Stats That Matter

• 31: Indiana's points off Portland's 20 turnovers. The Fire got 16 off the Fever's 15.
• 30 of 34: Indiana at the line, compared with 14 of 18 for Portland.
• 14: Fever steals, five of them by Boston.
• 14 of 31: Portland from 3-point range. The Fire outshot Indiana's 10 of 29 from deep and still lost by 14.
• 5: Straight 100-point games for Indiana, which the Fever call the longest such streak in WNBA history.

What It Means

Indiana is 19-10, 8-5 on the road, and our recount of the schedule backs up the AP's numbers: five straight wins, nine of the last 11, five straight games with 100 points. The team says this is its first trip to nine games over .500 since 2012. The Fever also took the season series from Portland 2-1, and they head to Minnesota on Sunday for a much harder test.

Portland fell to 11-18 and 6-8 at home, and this was its fourth straight loss. Los Angeles visits on Sunday.

Same Movie, Bigger Numbers

At this point the Fever offense is a Fast & Furious sequel. You know exactly how it ends, the math stops making sense somewhere around the second act, and you buy a ticket anyway. Portland did everything a home team can ask for: a record crowd, 14 threes, a 26-point night from Carleton, a lead in the second quarter. Indiana just kept hitting the nitrous.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Additional context from the Associated Press and the Indiana Fever.