The Indiana Fever’s latest entry on the Indiana Fever schedule ended in a 90-88 loss to the Golden State Valkyries on Thursday night, a game that turned on one possession and left Indiana at 4-3. Caitlin Clark finished with 16 points, six assists, four rebounds and three steals, but the Fever could not convert late after Aliyah Boston missed a short shot with three seconds left that would have sent it to overtime.
The game mattered because Clark reached her 500th career assist in the second quarter and became the fastest player to get there in WNBA history. She did it while going 3-of-12 from the field and 2-of-6 from three-point range, but she made all eight of her free throws and kept Indiana within striking distance. Sophie Cunningham added 11 points off the bench in 25 minutes, giving the Fever a lift with 4-of-11 shooting, two rebounds, two assists and two steals.
That came after Golden State opened on a 14-7 run and held Indiana to 14 points in the first quarter, then watched the Fever answer with a 30-23 second quarter to make it 44-44 at halftime. Indiana led 67-65 after three, but the Valkyries surged back, took an 89-84 lead with 30 seconds left and held on after the Fever’s 4-1 push trimmed it to two. The win moved Golden State to 5-2 and left Indiana looking at the kind of narrow defeat that usually stings most because it was right there to be won.
The frustration is obvious: Clark hit a milestone that will sit in the record book, yet the Fever still walked off the floor with a loss. For Indiana, the next question is not whether the milestone mattered — it clearly did — but whether the team can turn a night like this into a win the next time the schedule sends it back out.
