Injury-riddled Fever claw to maintain playoff position

As the 2025 WNBA regular season winds down, many fans contemplate one question: can the Indiana Feverstill win a championship this year?

The Indiana Fever’s championship aspirations have devolved into a desperate playoff scramble as the team battles catastrophic injuries down the season’s final stretch. Holding the Eastern Conference’s sixth seed with a 19-16 record, the once-preseason favorite now clings to a precarious postseason position with nine games remaining.

Indiana’s medical report reads like a nightmare scenario: Franchise cornerstone Caitlin Clark (groin) is likely lost for the season after averaging 23.8 points per game. She joins Aari McDonald (broken foot) and Sydney Colson (ACL) as season-ending casualties. The injury crisis deepened on Aug. 17 when rotational wing Sophie Cunningham suffered a knee injury against Dallas, leaving her status uncertain.

These devastating losses have transformed the Fever’s trajectory. Projected as title contenders in April, they now sit 10 games behind Western Conference leader Minnesota (28-5) and just 3.5 games ahead of seventh-seeded San Antonio. While Indiana maintains a 6-4 record over its last 10 contests, the mounting absences threaten their playoff footing.

The Fever’s margin for error remains slim. San Antonio (18-16) trails by just 1.5 games and has won seven of its last 10. Seattle (17-18) sits two games back but has struggled recently. Should Indiana’s slide continue, mathematical elimination remains plausible though unlikely, requiring near-total collapse in the final weeks.

With Clark’s offensive creation and Cunningham’s perimeter shooting compromised, increased minutes fall to Aliyah Boston (14.2 points, 9.1 rebounds) to anchor the interior and Lexie Hull (38.9% from three-point range) to stretch defenses.

While 19 victories should ultimately secure a postseason berth, the Fever’s ceiling appears dramatically lowered. Without their injured stars, advancing beyond the first round — where they’d likely face Minnesota or New York — seems increasingly improbable for a team whose season has been upended by cruel fortune.

Contact Multi-Media & Senior Sports Reporter Noral Parham at 317-762-7846. Follow him on Facebook and TikTok @HorsemenSportsMedia. For more sports, click here.

Noral Parham is the multi-media & senior sports reporter for the Indianapolis Recorder, one of the oldest Black publications in the country. Prior to joining the Recorder, Parham served as the community advocate of the MLK Center in Indianapolis and senior copywriter for an e-commerce and marketing firm in Denver.