Sept. 21—MOHEGAN — The Connecticut Sun faced the Indiana Fever in the regular-season opener on May 14, a 92-71 Sun victory at Mohegan Sun Arena, with Connecticut’s DiJonai Carrington playing a lockdown defense as the Fever ushered in the Caitlin Clark era.
The Sun then played the Fever in Game 3 six days later in Indiana, winning by a narrower margin, 88-84.
“I remember sitting here after Game 1 or 3 when we played them and I was like, ‘They’re going to be fine,’” White said this week. “They just have to grow up. They’re young and they have to figure it out and they have to learn to play together and they did.
“They play incredibly well.”
The third-seeded Suns (28-12 in the regular season) will now face the sixth-seeded Fevers (20-20) in the first round of the WNBA playoffs, with Game 1 of a best-of-three series set for Sunday at 3 p.m. at Mohegan (Chap. 8).
Game 2 will be at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Mohegan and Game 3, if necessary, will be Friday at Indianapolis.
The Sun, making their eighth straight WNBA playoff appearance, reached the semifinals last year before losing to the New York Liberty, while the Fever haven’t reached the playoffs since 2016, with the legendary Tamika Catchings in the final year of her career and none other than White as their head coach.
Indiana opened the season with a series of games, 11 in 20 days, while starting the season with a 1-8 record. The Fever were 11-15 at the Olympic break and finished the season with a 7-1 record in their first eight games after that.
Clark, the Iowa big man who was the first overall pick in this year’s WNBA draft, lived up to expectations, averaging 19.2 points, 5.7 rebounds and 8.4 assists, and was selected to multiple league MVP lists while setting the league’s rookie scoring record.
Indiana’s Kelsey Mitchell is also averaging 19.2 points per game, and South Carolina graduate and 2023 first-round pick Aliyah Boston is averaging 14.0 points and 8.9 rebounds, along with 3.2 assists and 1.2 blocks. Indiana’s healthy team is averaging 85.0 points per game.
“I think it’s just pressure in general because it’s the playoffs,” Suns point guard Ty Harris said of the matchup with the Fever. “These games are crucial. It’s a three-game series and we have to win, honestly, but it’s exciting to see that we’re playing them and we played them in our first game, too, so it’s going to come full circle.”
“Their pace,” Connecticut All-Star DeWanna Bonner said when asked about the difference in Indiana since the start of the season. “I don’t know. They play really fast. They run really, really well down the field. They’re a totally different team. They’re adjusting. They know where everybody’s going to be and where to expect the ball. Yeah, that pace is unbelievable.”
The Sun are coming off an 87-54 win Thursday over the Chicago Sky to move into third place. Connecticut outscored a short-handed Chicago team 23-6 in the third quarter, matching the lowest score by an opponent in a quarter this season.
Harris finished the regular season with 15 points, four assists and a block, which was the Sun’s best scorer. With seven assists, All-Star/Olympian Alyssa Thomas finished the regular season with 317 points, setting the franchise single-season record.
White joked that the reporters following the game didn’t let him enjoy the win over Chicago before shifting the focus to Indiana.
Asked to reflect on her season, White said it was a game in Washington on June 27, a 94-91 overtime victory, that showed her something about the Suns’ mettle. They trailed the Mystics 32-21 after the first quarter.
Bonner scored 24 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, Carrington scored 10 of her 22 points in overtime and Veronica Burton provided a spark off the bench with nine points, five assists and two steals.
“That’s the game where V came in and really changed the dynamic of the game and I think at that point we built the confidence of our bench and our depth, found ways to win and come back from a tough deficit at that point,” White said. “To me, that was a big growth area for us.”
“Staying together through adversity. I think we’ve had a lot of moments. That game still sticks out in my mind. … There’s a connection within that team that was even different than last year. I think there’s a continued growth in the level of trust in each other.”
