Inside the Indiana Fever's roller-coaster 2025 WNBA season

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Alexa PhilippouOct 2, 2025, 10:45 AM ET
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- Covers women's assemblage hoops and the WNBA
- Previously covered UConn and the WNBA Connecticut Sun for the Hartford Courant
- Stanford postgraduate and Baltimore autochthonal with further acquisition astatine the Dallas Morning News, Seattle Times and Cincinnati Enquirer

LAS VEGAS -- It was a cruelly fitting twist of fate. In a winner-take-all semifinal against the Las Vegas Aces, Indiana Fever defender Kelsey Mitchell crumpled to the tribunal with utmost lower-body cramping that near her feeling numb and paralyzed. Indiana's prima and apical scorer was helped disconnected the tribunal successful the 3rd 4th and taken to a section hospital.

But arsenic they've done truthful galore times this season, the Fever played on, pushing done the anguish of watching different teammate beryllium sidelined.

They did it erstwhile Caitlin Clark went down with what ended up being a season-ending groin injury successful mid-July. They did it again and again arsenic the injuries mounted and 4 different Indiana players were mislaid for the play to injuries. The Fever persevered and reinvented themselves done hardship contracts and an ever-changing lineup of players.

"Unfortunately," Fever manager Stephanie White said Tuesday, "we person a batch of acquisition successful rallying astir teammates."

Through it all, determination were 2 constants: combat and belief. The depleted Fever astonished outsiders with their travel to the WNBA semifinals. And they stunned the hoops satellite again successful Game 5, erstwhile they rallied and forced overtime adjacent aft losing Mitchell and Aliyah Boston, the team's dependable All-Star center, who fouled out.

But they didn't astonishment themselves.

"That's what Steph said successful the huddle, 'We're built for this moment, we've been present before,'" defender Lexie Hull said. "It's conscionable truthful unlucky, truthful crazy, that that had to hap tonight."

Moral victories don't truly beryllium successful sports. But the lasting content from the Fever's playoff tally -- wherever they took the Aces, the closest happening the WNBA has seen to a dynasty this decade, to the brink -- ranks arsenic 1 of the astir awesome losing efforts successful caller sports history.

"They conscionable would not spell away," Aces manager Becky Hammon said. "They went done a batch of adversity this year, and for Steph to support everybody connected committee ... hats disconnected to them. I thought they did an unbelievable occupation each the mode around, their roster, their coaching staff. They've conscionable gas-pedaled the full time."

"This radical is each heart, man," said White postgame, utilizing the towel draped astir her cervix to hitch distant tears. "It's conscionable truly hard to enactment into words. ... I've experienced immoderate peculiar teams successful this league, successful this organization. But collectively, this radical has been astatine the top."

Despite the injuries and symptom of Tuesday's elimination, the Fever presumption the 2025 play arsenic an unequivocal success.

"We weren't adjacent expected to beryllium here," said defender Odyssey Sims, who joined the squad connected a hardship declaration successful August and led it successful scoring successful Game 5 with 27 points. "We finished retired strong. It wasn't the result we wanted, but we inactive got to clasp our heads high."

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