Fever vs. Sky: Boston, Clark Are First WNBA Teammates With 30-Point Double-Doubles in the Same Game

Nobody had ever done this. Aliyah Boston went for 34 points and 12 rebounds on Thursday night, Caitlin Clark went for 32 points and 10 assists, and they became the first pair of teammates in WNBA history with 30-point double-doubles in the same game.

They needed all of it, plus overtime, because the Chicago Sky dropped 39 in the third quarter and got a 26-foot Skylar Diggins 3 to tie it in the final seconds of regulation. The Indiana Fever finally won 114-106 in front of 15,578 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, setting a franchise record for points in a game on the way out.

From Blowout to Bonfire

This looked like an early bedtime. Clark had a hand in 21 of Indiana's 27 first-quarter points, including 10 of her own, as the Fever ran off 11 straight and then eight more to go up 35-16 early in the second. That 19-point cushion lasted about as long as a phone battery at a concert.

Chicago closed the half on a 14-2 run, with nine of those points coming in a row, to make it 46-40 at the break. The Sky opened the third with a 16-7 run to take their first lead since it was 7-6. Indiana got back in front and led 68-61 with 3:10 left in the quarter, and then Chicago did it again, scoring 11 in a row. The third ended 79-73 Sky, a 39-27 quarter in which Sydney Taylor looked like the best player in the building. She'd made nine of her first 10 shots by then, including all three of her 3s.

Boston and Clark answered with nine and eight points in the fourth. Diggins' 16-foot pull-up had the Sky within 88-87 at the 4:06 mark, but a Clark bucket and then a Boston layup off a Clark pass made it 94-89 with 2:29 left, and Clark's two free throws at 17.8 had Indiana up 98-93. Kamilla Cardoso had already fouled out, Natasha Cloud would finish with six as well, and this one seemed close to done.

Then it got weird. Elizabeth Williams made two at the line, Indiana botched the ensuing inbounds and gave it away with 5.1 seconds to play, and Diggins let fly from 26 feet with Taylor setting her up. It dropped with 1.4 on the clock. Tied at 98.

The Turning Point: Boston Owned Overtime

A lot of teams would've folded after that. Indiana scored the first four points of the extra period instead, on a Boston bucket and a Clark drive, and Boston was everywhere from there. She finished overtime with eight points and six rebounds, a franchise record for boards in an overtime period.

Taylor's 3 got Chicago back within 102-101, and that was the last time the Sky had any real footing. Boston scored again to make it 104-101. Then she hit a jumper from the free-throw line off a Clark assist, Kelsey Mitchell followed with a fast-break layup, and it was 108-101 with 1:10 left. Diggins made three free throws and Taylor made two more to get it to 109-106, but Boston answered with two free throws at 21.0 seconds. Chicago went 1-of-8 from the field in overtime, and the Fever outscored the Sky 16-8.

Two Stars, One Line in the Record Book

Boston's 34 was a career high, and she got there on 13-of-26 shooting with seven offensive rebounds. It was her 44th career double-double, and she went 6-of-6 at the line for good measure.

Clark logged 40 minutes, and she spent a lot of them at the line. She went 15-of-15 on free throws, which the Fever's notes say makes her the fourth player in WNBA history to go perfect on at least 15 attempts. She shot 8-of-18 from the field and just 1-of-6 from 3, so this wasn't some shooting clinic. It was pressure, patience and seven rebounds on top of the 10 assists. Five turnovers came along with it, but nobody's complaining.

Mitchell added 19 in 39 minutes, Lexie Hull had 11 with seven offensive rebounds, and Myisha Hines-Allen went plus-25 off the bench with nine boards, her best plus-minus since 2020 according to the team. For Chicago, Taylor finished with 30 in 21 minutes off the bench on 10-of-14 shooting, and Diggins had 21. Jacy Sheldon, Azura Stevens and Cardoso each scored 10, with Stevens adding nine rebounds and six assists.

Stats That Matter

• 114: A new Fever record for points in a game, topping the 110 they scored against Dallas on Sept. 15, 2024.
• 23 straight: Free throws made by Indiana before its first miss, which came with 46 seconds left in overtime. The Fever finished 29-of-31.
• 39: Chicago's points in the third quarter. Indiana scored 27 and lost the quarter by 12.
• 19-13: Offensive rebounds for Indiana, part of a 46-34 win on the glass.
• 1-of-8: Chicago from the field in overtime, a number that explains a lot about how a 106-point night still ended in a loss.

What It Means

Indiana is 7-5, 5-2 at home and 3-1 in Commissioner's Cup play, and it has won two in a row. The Fever head to Connecticut on Saturday, and they'd probably like to go a whole game without needing a record to win it.

Chicago is 4-9, 3-4 on the road, and the loss was its third straight. Giving up 114 on a night when Taylor scored 30 off the bench and the team reached 106 is not a great sign for the defense. New York comes in on Wednesday, and that's not exactly a get-well matchup.

Sliders All the Way Up

This is what it looks like when both of Indiana's stars hit at once: a box score that reads like somebody maxed out every slider in a video game's franchise mode. The history is nice. Winning a game that nearly slipped away twice is better.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details from the Associated Press and the Indiana Fever's postgame notes.