The Indiana Fever aren’t done yet.
After blowing a 9-point lead in a Game 1 loss to the Atlanta Dream, the Fever rebounded for a dominant 77-60 win over the Dream in Game 2 Tuesday night.
With the win, the shorthanded Fever forced a winner-take-all Game 3 in Atlanta on Thursday. There, the pressure will be on the third-seeded Dream to avoid a first-round upset to a 6th-seeded Fever team that continues to compete despite a litany of injuries, including to star guard Caitlin Clark.
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On Tuesday, it was Clark’s fellow All-Stars Kelsey Mitchell and Aliyah Boston who led the way as the Fever overwhelmed a Dream team seeking its first postseason series win since 2018.
Indiana asserted control early with a 20-14 first-quarter lead and entered halftime with a 35-29 advantage. Atlanta cut that lead to 40-37 midway through the third before Indiana delivered the knockout blow.
The Fever closed the third quarter on a 19-7 run that it finished with a 5-0 flurry in the final 8.8 seconds. Boston exploited a mismatch in the post against All-Star guard Allisha Gray for an easy layup.
Mitchell then picked off the ensuing baseline pass, and kicked the ball out, where it eventually found a wide open Lexi Hull beyond the arc. Hull pulled up and sunk a 3-pointer at the buzzer to send Gainbridge Fieldhouse into a frenzy.
From there, the Fever closed out the wire-to-wire win to keep their season alive.
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Mitchell led all scorers with 19 points alongside four assists while hitting 4 of her 8 3-point attempts. Her fourth 3 of the game was the first bucket of the third quarter to extend Indiana’s lead to 38-29.
Boston got in on the long-distance action as well on a night when the Fever shot 8 of 19 (42.1%) from 3 and limited the Dream to a 5-of-19 (26.3%) effort from beyond the arc.
In the end, Boston tallied 15 points, five rebounds and three assists.
This story will be updated.
