The Indiana Fever kept rolling Tuesday night, beating the Toronto Tempo 101-95 for their fifth straight win, but the night also left Kelsey Mitchell off the floor for the fourth quarter after she was overheated. Caitlin Clark said the Fever did not play their best, even as they walked away with another road victory.
Clark’s postgame remarks to ’s Holly Rowe explained why the result felt bigger than the final score. Indiana is now 24-12, in sole possession of third place, and two games behind the Golden State Valkyries for the No. 2 seed, so every win matters even when the performance is not clean.
Mitchell’s exit mattered because her scoring run kept the Fever afloat before the temperature took over. She stretched her streak of 20-point games to 20, tying the WNBA record originally set by A'ja Wilson, and White later said Mitchell sat out the fourth quarter because she was overheated. Clark joked that it would probably be helpful if Canada had air conditioning because it was a million degrees in the arena, a line that matched the way both teams seemed to be fighting the building as much as each other.
The heat was not a side note. Clark said the Fever were happy to take a win when they could get it, and White said this was the second straight game played in really, really hot environments. Indiana reached 100 points for the 16th time in 36 games, Clark finished with 24 points and seven assists in 33 minutes, and the Fever have now won 10 of their last 12 games.
That leaves one straightforward question after a comfortable score line: whether the overheating that pulled Mitchell out in Toronto was only a one-night issue or something Indiana has to manage again on Thursday against the Dallas Wings. For now, the Fever have the streak they wanted, but the night also showed how thin the margin can be when the building becomes part of the game.
