WNBA: The Fever’s unforgettable season continues after Game 4 win

If you ask me, Gainbridge Fieldhouse is one of the more exciting arenas in which to watch a WNBA basketball game. The fans—who are oft-discussed and inflammatory at times—are raucous, solid and committed. There’s a reason the Fever are so often at their best when the house is full: The support is tangible.

The Fever, the No. 6-seed in the 2025 WNBA playoffs, didn’t win Game 3 against the No. 2-seed Las Vegas Aces on Friday night, but the team rallied and managed to defeat Las Vegas 90-83 in Sunday afternoon’s Game 4. There will plenty of analyzing of what went wrong and what went right for both teams, but that’s not what we’re doing here.

This is about what it feels like when you’re down on the court, watching players warm up and realizing just how much taller Aliyah Boston is than you. (Over a foot, for the curious, and when you’re standing down there, it’s immediately obvious how she’s able to do what she does on the court each week.)

It’s also about tweens hanging their t-shirts, their posters, their shoes—anything, really, whatever they can get their hands on—over a railing, hoping against hope that Caitlin Clark, Sophie Cunningham or Kelsey Mitchell will see them, smile, sign something and say hi. And it’s also about the resiliency of a team that keeps achieving when everything and everyone is sure they’ll give up.

There’s a lot to say about the WNBA right now. As we march toward what will inevitably be a thrilling Finals match no matter which two teams are playing, it would be irresponsible to ignore the heavier side of things. There’s the looming CBA negotiations, which could derail two expansion drafts, free agency and even the 2026 WNBA Draft. Then, we had Cheryl Reeve’s outburst and ejection from the Minnesota Lynx’s Game 3 loss to the Phoenix Mercury, which could result in a league-wide ultimatum on acceptable coach conduct. There also are necessary conversations surrounding officiating and injuries. All of this matters, and hopefully, all of it will be dealt with in the months to come.

But right now, we’re just going to talk about the Fever.

Nearly every team was touched by injury and misfortune this season. But, the Fever have been the team I followed the most closely, the team I spent the most time around and the team that I’m writing about. If you weren’t there, it’s tough to describe just how confident and excited the team was while speaking to the media at the end of April: You could feel that this was their year.

Sure, the Fever had a lot of new faces and people who were still getting used to seeing themselves in blue and red, but everyone was fully locked in and on board. The team’s practice gym was brimming with the kind of energy you have when you just know something good is coming.

That feeling was partly due to the roster the franchise’s front office put together. As Clark mused to reporters in late April, in a statement that would prove nearly prophetic as the season wore on, “How lucky are we to have such a good roster and so many people who wanted to be a part of something bigger than themselves?” Adding, “They saw something in this team, in this organization.”

The team, she noted didn’t have a lot of time to work together before their first preseason game, so would be doing “a lot of learning on the fly.” “But best thing you can do is just go out there and play with your teammates,” Clark concluded. “It’s the best way to learn.”

The Fever were set to do exactly that, and then came news in early May that Clark had injured her left quadriceps. What initially seemed like the most unlikely, unfathomable Fever update imaginable soon turned into a grueling reality that resulted in Clark missing the vast majority of the 2025 season.

Soon after Clark was sidelined, Cunningham suffered an ankle injury and the team was forced to bring in a relief player. Aari McDonald turned out to be the fuel the Fever’s engine needed to keep running, and she was eventually upgraded to a rest-of-season contract after it became apparent Clark’s subsequent groin injuries would keep her out of the game for a significant amount of time.

After the Fever saw the departure of DeWanna Bonner in July, the team seemingly began to stack injuries. One by one, players fell, and one by one, players were added. By the season’s end, the team had a roster that is 16 players deep—unheard of in the league. In addition to Clark, Cunningham exited the season with an MCL tear, Sydney Colson tore her ACL, McDonald broke her foot, Chloe Bibby injured her knee and Damiris Dantas has been out with a concussion.

But the Fever have somehow continued to find new ways to show up and support one another, and at this point, it’s clear the team is playing for each other and for the fans, full stop.

Mitchell has found new depths to pull from and at various points carried the team on her back. (There’s a reason fans attending semifinal games at Gainbridge have chanted “MVP!” whenever she is shown on the Jumbotron, despite the fact that the Aces’ A’ja Wilson was crowned September 21), Lexie Hull has demonstrated an ironclad resolve to win, and Boston has reminded fans just why she was a No. 1 overall draft pick, too.

Newcomers Odyssey Sims, Shey Peddy, and Aerial Powers have seamlessly fit into a system that, at this point, is likely only understood completely by head coach Stephanie White, who must spend hours configuring and calculating and accounting for how the team might, yet again, have to pivot.

All of this potential has been evident all season to anyone who has been watching the Fever play. Despite the fact that the roster looks nearly nothing like it did at the beginning of the season, despite the fact that Clark missed most of it and despite the fact that everyone keeps counting them out, the Fever are still here.

There’s no way to know what will happen when Indiana and Las Vegas meet in Game 5 on September 30, but without a doubt, the Fever will end this season with their heads held high. After all, they’ve earned that right. The tenacity the team has demonstrated this season bodes well for a 2026 that will truly be unforgettable, if a 2025 WNBA Finals to remember doesn’t come first.