INDIANAPOLIS — Resiliency.
Throughout the Fever’s season, it’s one of the words that has come up most often. While every team goes through ups and downs throughout a WNBA campaign, the roller coaster nature of Indiana’s has been particularly trying.
The highs include a Commissioner’s Cup trophy earlier this season. But the lows have been equally frustrating.
Caitlin Clark has played just 13 games this season due to multiple injuries. DeWanna Bonner, one of the team’s premier offseason acquisitions, played just nine games before requesting her release. The biggest gut punch, though, came on Friday when the Fever announced both Sydney Colson (ACL tear) and Aari McDonald (broken foot) would be out for the season.
It came at a time when Indiana was really rolling, winners of eight of their last 12 games. Making the injuries more impactful, they were to two players who are well-respected and liked in the locker room.
“First and foremost, just broken-hearted for them,” head coach Stephanie White said before Saturday’s game against the Sky. “They’re two really good people that you hate to see this happen to. They’ve been an integral part of what we’ve been doing and so you hate it for them. Unfortunately, it’s part of the deal, and we’ve got to roll with it and we’ve got players in that locker room who believe in one another, players in that locker room who are as competitive as all get out.”
White also spoke about the importance of rebounding from the news, which left the Fever without a point guard vs. Chicago, and the need to “pull even tighter” as a group.
The response from Indiana, though, was indicative of the resiliency that has come to define the team this season. Despite only having three available guards and running a variety of zone defenses only installed during shootaround on Saturday morning, the Fever controlled the game from nearly start to finish, knocking off the Sky, 92-70.
Even if it came against a Sky team that was without Angel Reese — and, thus, one of the worst teams in the league — the Fever could do with any sort of positive vibes and momentum.
“Unbelievably proud,” Kelsey Mitchell said of the Fever’s performance. “I think this is the most resilient team I’ve ever been a part of, and I say that wholeheartedly. We’ve had a lot of mishaps happen throughout the course of the season. I think, throughout the course of it all, we’ve stayed resilient, and you guys get to see us at our best when we stay together and be resilient.”
A sign of how much things have changed for the Fever is that they entered the season with expectations of competing for a title. However, things went awry from the start. Caitlin Clark went down just four games into the season, and Bonner exited the team during her absence.
Unfortunately, injuries to Clark have been one of the few consistencies this season. After returning for five games, including a memorable win over the Liberty, Clark was then forced to the sideline with a groin strain. That was also the first time the resiliency of the Fever really showed through as they went into Minnesota and beat the Lynx by double digits to win the Commissioner’s Cup.
“I’m proud of this group,” White said. “I think we’ve shown a whole season long [that] they’re resilient, they’re connected. They pull for each other. They enjoy one another.
“It’s not been ideal circumstances all season long, but they’ve shown the character of who they are…I couldn’t be more proud of this group than I am at this moment.”
Clark’s return once more helped kickstart their winning run. But, again, after just four games, the situation changed as Clark reaggravated the groin injury late in a win in Connecticut on July 15, an injury that continues to keep her out.
It wasn’t until then that the Fever shifted their mindset from a holding pattern of waiting for her to get back to full health to moving forward with what they have. But in a surprise to many, Clark’s absence did not hold them back, as they had been one of the hottest teams in the league over the last month.
Near the center of that on the court was Aari McDonald, who had become one of the feel-good stories of the 2025 season. After starting the year out of the league, McDonald became integral to the Fever’s winning ways. Colson, meanwhile, fit perfectly into the role of veteran leader and backup point guard. The good vibes she provided off the court were complemented by her being a calm veteran on the court.
All of that made the injuries in Thursday’s loss to the Mercury devastating. The Fever aren’t new to injury updates this season, but losing McDonald and Colson in one swoop could have been the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Instead, though, the Fever proved that the lasting legacy of this team very well may be its adaptability and fight. Few would have blamed Indiana for a letdown performance on Saturday after getting more bad news, but that hasn’t been the M.O. for the team this season.
Title aspirations are no longer a focus for the Fever, at least not currently. Indiana is in the playoffs as things stand with 2.5 games separating them in the No. 5 seed from the Sparks, currently in ninth place and slated to be the final cut from the eight-team postseason.
More pressingly, the team needs guards, too. The Fever signed Odyssey Sims to a hardship contract on Sunday and likely will make another signing for a point guard in the coming days as well. Clark’s return remains in question, but it will become an even more lingering question as the playoffs near.
But what’s clear at this point is that, no matter what stands in front of the Fever, they’ll continue fighting.
“I’m proud of them in these moments because it’s not always easy,” White said. “This league is not easy. This job, it’s not easy. They go through a lot. But when you love who you come to work with every day, when it’s not about you and it’s about everybody else and it’s about the whole, it makes it worth it.
“It makes going through the struggles worth it, and I just think that this group is a special one.”
