Fever vs. Liberty: Kelsey Mitchell Scores 28, Caitlin Clark Adds 22 and 10 as Indiana Rolls to a 106-92 Win

Stephanie White spent 2 1/2 minutes before tipoff on Tuesday sticking up for herself and taking aim at what she sees as the sideshows crowding out the WNBA, according to the AP. Her team needed only 20 minutes of basketball to make a louder point, and it used a different vocabulary: 11 first-half 3-pointers and a 64-46 lead.

Kelsey Mitchell scored 28, with 20 of them before the break, Caitlin Clark piled up 22 points and 10 assists, and Indiana beat the New York Liberty 106-92 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. New York arrived on a four-game winning streak and left wondering who had swapped the rims for hula hoops.

Sixty-Four Points in 20 Minutes

Indiana led 29-23 after one quarter, with Mitchell already up to 12. The second quarter was absurd. The Fever scored 35 points, made seven 3s and used a 15-7 run late in the period to go up 54-37 before settling for an 18-point halftime lead. Per the AP, they shot 59% from the field and 79% from deep in the half.

According to the Fever, both numbers rank second in franchise history, the seven for a quarter and the 11 for a half, one short of the marks set on Aug. 18, 2024. Clark, Mitchell and Sophie Cunningham each finished with four 3s, and Aliyah Boston chipped in three more.

New York Did Not Go Quietly

This Liberty team had won seven of eight since losing by 20 in this same building on July 18, and it was not about to fold at halftime. When Indiana's 3s finally went cold in the third, New York attacked, and a 64-46 game had become 66-57 with 6:51 left in the period.

Everybody in the arena knew the recent history, too. Last week Indiana let a double-digit lead get away against Las Vegas and lost 86-84. Here was the same movie, starting up again on the same screen.

The Turning Point: The Last 6:51 of the Third

This is the stretch that separated this game from that one. Indiana closed the quarter on a 21-10 surge, capped by Mitchell's three-point play and Cunningham's 3 in the final minute, and the lead was back to 87-67. Indiana's largest lead of the night was 21. New York won the fourth 25-19, with Marine Johannes hitting a 28-foot step-back with 30.7 seconds left for flavor, but over the last five minutes the Liberty never got closer than the 14-point final margin.

Mitchell and Clark, Doing Mitchell and Clark Things

Mitchell went 11 of 16 from the field and 4 of 4 from deep, with three rebounds, three assists and two steals. The Fever say it was her 17th consecutive game with at least 20 points, three short of the overall record of 20 held by A'ja Wilson, and her 18th game of 25 or more this season, a total that ranks fourth for one season in WNBA history. Most scorers get hot. Mitchell has signed a long-term lease.

Clark hit 4 of 8 from 3 and all four of her free throws in 35 minutes, and the four turnovers came with the territory for somebody handling the ball that much. Per the Fever, this was her 10th points-assists double-double of the season, which ties for fourth in WNBA history for one season, and her 27th for her career, one shy of tying Sue Bird for third most in league history.

Boston gave Indiana 19 points, seven rebounds and four assists. Cunningham scored 12 on 4-of-5 shooting, all of it from deep, and her plus-17 was the best mark in the game. Monique Billings added 14 off the bench and went 6 of 6 at the line.

For New York, Breanna Stewart scored 19 but needed 21 shots to get there. Sabrina Ionescu also had 19, on 7-of-11 shooting with five assists, though five turnovers took some shine off it. Jonquel Jones finished with 14 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks, and Johannes went 2 of 9 from 3. The Liberty did nearly everything else right: they outrebounded Indiana 39-27, won the paint 44-34, grabbed 13 offensive boards to four and took seven more shots. Basketball is rude like that. Put it another way: New York's 11 3s came on 36 tries, and Indiana got five more makes on 11 fewer attempts.

Stats That Matter

• 16 of 25 vs. 11 of 36: The whole game in one line.
• 48-33: Points from 3, a 15-point gap in a game decided by 14.
• 69: Combined points from Mitchell, Clark and Boston.
• 39-27: New York's rebounding edge, which bought the Liberty nothing.
• 20-11: Indiana's edge in points off turnovers, on 13 New York giveaways.

What It Means

Indiana is 21-12 overall and 12-6 at home, has won two straight and has won seven of nine. The Fever now lead this season series 2-1, and they rank the 21 wins as tied for third on the franchise's single-season list. It was also their 15th game with 100 or more points this season, per the team, and nobody needs a calculator to see where this offense lives right now. Dallas comes to town on Friday.

New York dropped to 20-14, including 9-9 on the road, two days after hammering Las Vegas 111-71 in Brooklyn. One night in Indianapolis does not erase that run, but it does show what happens when the Liberty let a hot-shooting team get comfortable early. The Sparks visit on Thursday, which is a friendlier assignment on paper.

Final Word

Al Pacino needed a locker room and a monologue about inches in Any Given Sunday. White got 2 1/2 minutes before the game, and her team responded from behind the arc. The AP suggested the outburst seemed to fuel them, and maybe it did. Speeches are free, though, and 16-of-25 shooting from 3 is not. A coach can say whatever she wants before tipoff. It lands a lot harder when her team follows it with a 64-point half.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Records and team notes as reported by the Associated Press and the Indiana Fever.