The Guru’s WNBA Report: Indiana’s Second Quarter Eruption Without Caitlin Clark Carries Fever to Commissioner Cup Title Upset at Minnesota

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

The anti-trend continued to be the trend in the WNBA this season Tuesday night as Indiana  playing again without Caitlin Clark due to a groin injury crushed the league’s top team Minnesota 74-59 before an enemy Lynx crowd of 12,778 in the Target Center in Minneapolis as the Fever (7-7) rallied from an early 13-point deficit and took the Commissioner’s Cup title from the defending champions.

Clark, the overall No. 1 draft pick in 2024 out of Iowa who became rookie of the year, has missed three straight games with her current injury and five earlier with a quad injury.

Natasha Howard won MVP honors with 16 points, 12 rebounds and four assists while also stymying Napheesa Collier, who had been the league’s statistical leader, holding the former UConn great to 12 points on 6-18 from the floor who also committed five of 16 Minnesota turnovers.

“Phee’s a great player, but my thing was, make her take hard shots, and that’s what I did tonight,” Howard said.

Nothing counts statistically on the season in this game other than once Indiana became the East representative and Minnesota the West the Lynx 14-2 record earned hosting rights.

Indiana is tied with Las Vegas in 7th for what would be the last two playoff spots ahead of Washington by a half game and the Lynx are a 2.5 game leader at the top over Phoenix.

Ironically, last year Minnesota was the upset winner in New York at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, but the Liberty came back in October to take their first crown in the franchise 28-year history, matching the WNBA’s existence, at the finish in overtime in the decisive Game 5 of the Finals.

“You've got to have the confidence in yourself and the confidence in your teammates to allow someone else to step up in those moments, and I think that this group is learning that,” fever coach Stephanie White said.

It was the Lynx’s worst performance of the summer, shooting 34.9 percent from the floor and making just 4-of-16 from deep well below the 9.4 average of making 3-pointers.

“We have a tendency sometimes to get impatient, and I didn't think that our commitment to moving the basketball and creating advantages — we had a hard time getting that done,” said Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve, the former LaSalle star from South Jersey, after the first Lynx home loss this season.

Sophie Cunningham added 13 points for the Fever while Aliyah Boston, Aari McDonald and Kelsey Mitchell each scored 12 points.

“I described this entire experience as a gut check experience, and I mean it intentionally, I mean, physically, mentally, psychologically.” Mitchell said. “We did an unbelievable job of just staying together and weathering the storm.”

McDonald, a former Arizona star, was recently re-signed by Indiana after serving a brief stint in a hardship contract and DeWanna Bonner was given her requested release.

Alanna Smith scored 15, while Courtney Williams scored 11 for Minnesota.

The Lynx led 27-14 early in the second quarter before going scoreless, 0-10 closing the half while the Fever erupted on an 18-0 run and never trailed again.

“We always want to play our best basketball,” Smith said. “So, we have to take this game to heart and... learn from the mistakes that we made in this game, the way we showed up, the way that we prepared, and just make sure that we don't do it again.”

The outcome is the latest evidence of nothing a sure bet the rest of the way.

Expansion and All-Stars

The game came amid a flood of activity off the court for both the Fever and WNBA, the league a day earlier announcing Cleveland (2028), Detroit (2029), and Philadelphia (2030) will be getting teams bringing the total up to18 with the former two previously being in the league and Philadelphia joining the first time.

Next summer as previously announced Toronto and Portland will join Golden State, which debuted this year and currently is in sixth having sold out every home game to date (18,000+) at the Chase Center in San Francisco.

On Sunday, Clark and Collier were announced as the top two vote getters among ten starters for the All-Star game at Indiana’s Gainbridge Fieldhouse on July 19 at 8:30 p.m. on ABC.

They will serve as captains picking starters from the rest of the pool of eight announced Monday from fan, media, and player voting.

Those are Paige Bueckers, the No. 1 overall draft pick out of UConn (Dallas), Aliyah Boston (Indiana), Allisha Gray (Atlanta), Sabrina Ionescu (New York), Nneka Ogwumike (Seattle), Satou Sabally (Phoenix), Breanna Stewart (New York) and A’ja Wilson (Las Vegas).

The coaches with the best two records as of Friday will serve as head coaches and this week the league’s 13 coaches will pick the rest of the players to be announced Sunday and also selected by the captains.

Looking Ahead

The season resumes Thursday with a five-game slate: Indiana hosts Las Vegas at 7 p.m. on Amazon Prime, while New York at the same time hosts Los Angeles, trying to shake a three-game losing streak and still missing Jonquel Jones with an injury until well after the break for the All-Star game.

Atlanta hosts Seattle at 7:30 p.m., while Dallas hosts Phoenix and Minnesota hosts Washington at 8 p.m.

The WNBA’s streaming League Pass will air the other four games.