MINNEAPOLIS — The Indiana Fever headed home with a trophy Tuesday night.
Granted, the achievement was not nearly as prestigious as winning a league championship. But after the Fever pulled away for a 74-59 win over the Minnesota Lynx to win the WNBA’s Commissioner’s Cup, which included a $500,000 prize pool, everyone on the team felt like celebrating.
“It’s nice to take a trophy home,” Fever coach Stephanie White said. “But this isn’t the ultimate goal. It’s a goal. We’ve got to continue to get better.”
The Fever hope that the high-profile win serves as a turning point in what has been an up-and-down season.
Indiana played without Caitlin Clark, who remained out because of a groin injury. Clark watched the game from the bench and raised her arms in celebration at the final buzzer.
Natasha Howard was named Most Valuable Player of the in-season tourney after scoring 16 points and grabbing 12 rebounds for Indiana. Aliyah Boston also notched a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds, and Sophie Cunningham scored 13 points off the bench.
Alanna Smith scored 15 points to lead Minnesota, which fell short in its goal to win back-to-back Commissioner’s Cup trophies. Napheesa Collier scored 12 points, and Courtney Williams had 11.
White praised her players for rising to the moment without Clark, their playmaking All-Star.
“They’re learning how to play together,” White said. “They’re learning how to make plays for one another. Caitlin’s someone who often makes plays for them, and they’re learning how to do it for one another.”
As the Fever celebrated, the Lynx vowed to turn the loss into a positive.
“it’s good to look at it as a learning opportunity and with a growth mindset,” Smith said. “We’re in a position where it doesn’t affect our standings, but we still want to hold it in a place where it means something to us. We always want to play our best basketball.
“We have to take this game to heart and learn from the mistakes that we made in this game, the way that we showed up, the way that we prepared, and make sure we don’t do it again.”
The Lynx tried to erase a double-digit deficit in the fourth quarter but struggled to find a rhythm on offense. After Jessica Shepard made a basket to close the gap to 52-45 with 8:45 to play, the Fever scored the next six points to re-establish a 13-point advantage.
Indiana led 52-42 at the end of the third quarter.
The Fever built their lead to as many as 14 points in the third quarter. Aari McDonald knocked down a 3-pointer to make it 48-34 with 3:01 to go.
The Fever led 32-27 at the half.
Indiana trailed by as many as 13 points in the first half but ended the second quarter on an 18-0 run. The Lynx went the last 8:13 of the first half without scoring a point.
“We slowed down a little bit and started making the easy play instead of trying to make home run plays,” White said. “I felt like we let our offense work.”
McDonald made a layup to start the scoring run for the Fever, who rallied from a 27-14 deficit. Cunningham knocked down a 3-pointer from the left corner to give Indiana a 28-27 edge with 2:13 remaining in the half.
Howard made four free throws to finish the first-half scoring for the Fever.
Indiana shot 42.9 percent (27 of 63) overall and 42.1 percent (8 of 19) from 3-point range. Minnesota shot 34.9 percent (22 of 63) from the field and 25 percent (4 of 16) from beyond the arc.
Collier missed 12 of her 18 shots with Howard providing pesky defense throughout the game.
“I knew I had had a handful with Collier,” Howard said. “She’s a great player. My thing was just limit her to hard shots, and that’s what I did today. I made it uncomfortable for her, but at the end of day she was still going to get her buckets.
“I couldn’t do it by myself. I had to have my teammates behind me helping me out, as well.”
–Tom Musick, Field Level Media
