INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Fever took down the Chicago Sky, 97-77, in a wire-to-wire win on Friday night. The Fever burst out to a 16-point lead in the first quarter, then led by double-digits for the rest of the game.
This puts the Fever at 22-20 with two games left in the regular season. Indiana will travel to Baltimore to play the Washington Mystics on Sunday, then finish the regular season on Tuesday against the Minnesota Lynx.
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Here are three observations from the game:
Fever’s magic number down to 1
Thanks to a little help from the Los Angeles Sparks, the Indiana Fever’s magic number to make it into the 2025 playoffs is down to 1. Indiana’s magic number is a combination of Fever wins + Sparks losses needed to clinch a playoff berth. The number was three coming into Friday night, and it improved two spots because of Indiana’s win over Chicago and Los Angeles’ loss to Atlanta.
Indiana has full control of its playoff destiny, and all the Fever need to do to make the playoffs is win one of its final two games. The Fever play the Washington Mystics, who have been eliminated from the playoffs, on Sunday, then the Minnesota Lynx to finish out the regular season.
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The Fever could also get into the playoffs simply with one more loss from Los Angeles. The Sparks play the Dallas Wings, Phoenix Mercury and Las Vegas Aces to finish out the regular season.
Fever finish five-game season sweep over Sky
With Caitlin Clark or without her, with Angel Reese or without her, the result was always the same between Indiana and Chicago this season: a Fever win. Indiana completed the five-game season sweep over Chicago with the win on Friday night.
The Sky were the only team that Indiana played five times in the regular season. It could’ve been because of the distance — the two teams are only a three-hour drive from each other — or it could’ve been to capitalize on the perceived rivalry between Clark and Reese, two 2024 first-round draft picks.
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Still, there was rarely an instance when Clark and Reese were playing each other this season. The only time it happened was on May 17, the season-opener. Clark missed the other four games of the series because of her various injuries. Reese played against the Fever on June 7, but missed two of the games because of injury and Friday night’s game because of a one-game suspension for reaching the eight technical-foul limit.
The two teams seem like they should be natural rivals, even if just because of the distance. In the past two seasons, however, Indiana is 8-1 over Chicago.
Odyssey Sims avoids injury scare
After two season-ending injuries announced on Thursday, the last thing the Fever needed was another one. And they had a scare, but then a sigh of relief on Friday night.
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Odyssey Sims left the game in the first quarter after colliding with Chicago Sky forward Michaela Onyenwere while going for a rebound. Onyenwere was called for a loose ball foul, and Sims fell to the baseline near the Fever bench in pain.
Sims stayed on her back on the ground for a while, stomping her feet multiple times as the team surrounded her and trainers tended to her. Sims was eventually able to get up and walk off the floor under her own power, a towel over her head. She headed straight back to the locker room with Fever trainer Todd Champlin.
She returned to the bench later in the first quarter, still dressed in full uniform, then entered the game again with no issue. She finished the game with 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting in 20 minutes.
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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana Fever demolish Chicago Sky for five-game season sweep
