WNBA: Kelsey Mitchell has led Clark-less Indiana Fever to playoffs

“Finding out was a sad day for her and the entire team,” Emily Engstler said at an Indiana Fever postgame press conference three years ago. “She got robbed.”

Engstler was referring to the news that now three-time All-Star and Kelsey Mitchell was not selected to participate in the 2022 WNBA All-Star Game.

That was life for Mitchell back then. Always overlooked. Always missing the playoffs while trying to put the Fever on her back.

Isn’t it comical how things have shifted? Now, she benefits from the Caitlin Clark-teammate-effect boosting the amount of fan votes she gets for the All-Star Game. She’s not one to draw attention to herself, which made me even more sympathetic to her situation when she was lingering in the shadows. Whether she wants it or not, she’s part of the glitz and glam of Fevermania.

But during Indiana’s struggles this year, we were momentarily taken back to the vibe of Mitchell’s humble existence pre-Clark. At times, it seemed like the Fever might miss out on the playoffs, and they easily could have.

What would that have felt like for Mitchell? To have not been able to prove to herself that she could make the playoffs without Clark? Terrible, of course. She would have been figuratively right back in that press conference room sitting next to Engstler, handling everything with her usual class while internally dealing with massive disappointment over a lack of team success. She would be right back to the lowest of lows she experienced for so many years with the Fever teams of old. To go from the championship aspirations and expectations your team had entering this season to not even making the postseason would have been crushing, and she would have struggled to overcome the narrative that she can’t win without Clark, even if it was only her own competitive drive pushing that storyline in her mind.

Yet, that is not what happened. The Fever did not fall apart without Clark.

Nor without Sophie Cunningham, Aari McDonald, Sydney Colson and Chloe Bibby, the four other players they have lost this year to season-ending injuries. Instead, they have at times been brilliant in the way they’ve met adversity with success, and Mitchell has been at the center of all of it. She delivered 38 points, including 34 in the second half and overtime, to fuel the franchise-record 21-point comeback win over the Connecticut Sun, when losing to a team that bad at that moment would have been disastrous. She unleashed four 30-pieces in total, all featuring six-plus assists, all coming in games without Clark and together combining to see Mitchell go 23-for-36 from 3. She also had 20 other 20-pieces, which allowed her to average 20.2 points on the season—good for a career-high and third in the league.

And most importantly, her efforts pushed the Fever to a playoff berth, with legitimate hope of making a little noise in the postseason. It’s been a magical ride for someone who was once, perhaps, the unluckiest player in the W.

Mitchell deserves a ton of credit for the way she put her head down and refused to let the Fever miss the playoffs. Nobody can ever again say that she can’t make it there without Clark. Yes, she still had the help of Aliyah Boston, who is now a superstar in her own right, as well as Natasha Howard–two of the most efficient scorers in the league this year. But after them, Lexie Hull is really the only other remaining key contributor who has been with the team from the start of the season. It’s been a challenge to find chemistry with everyone else given how the roster has constantly shifted due to injuries. This truly is Mitchell’s and Boston’s team, with a mish-mash of a supporting cast.

Not that ANY of it matters to Mitchell. She’d much rather have never seen a season without Clark for as long as she played. She never needed to prove that she could make the playoffs without her. She’ll take winning no matter what her role is. But the fact that Clark was out this year opened the door for an old demon: the narrative of not being a winner.

Now, Mitchell has conquered it.

Indiana enters the playoffs as the No. 6 seed with a record of 24-20. Mitchell actually led Indiana to a four-game improvement on last season’s record, when Clark was available all year. It is truly worth emphasizing what Mitchell was able to accomplish this year.

The Fever face the tall task of trying to defeat the No. 3 seed Atlanta Dream in the first round. The Dream, like the Fever, made a lot of noise in the offseason; I picked them to finish fifth and Indiana to finish fourth. That was a whole different Fever team. Right now, the Dream are completely healthy, save for end-of-roster rookie Taylor Thierry (ankle). Indiana is down five injured players, all of whom had some level on impact on the team (as well as DeWanna Bonner—perhaps their biggest offseason acquisition—who quickly decided it wasn’t a good fit and is now playing with the Phoenix Mercury).

It will be tough, but if Mitchell can lead Indiana past Atlanta and into the semifinals, the noteworthiness of her season would go through the roof, greatly adding to her Fever legacy. We’ll see how things play out, but, for now, I just wanted to remind everyone that you should feel good for Kelsey Mitchell.