After months of exhilaration and excitement, The WNBA playoffs are finally down to four teams. While many fans are excited about A’ja Wilson trying to lead her Las Vegas Aces to their third title in four years, and the Minnesota Lynx vying to bring home their first title since 2017, the biggest story in the league is undoubtedly the unlikely staying power of the Indiana Fever.
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The Fever have been thrust into the spotlight ever since they drafted Caitlin Clark last year, but this season looked like a lost cause as, one by one, many of their best players went down with injuries. Clark has been sidelined with a strained groin since mid-July. To make Fever fans more miserable, the team has also lost Aari McDonald, Sydney Colson and Sophie Cunningham to various injuries.
This hasn’t stopped the team from marching on though. They grabbed the 6-seed with a strong finish to the regular season, then shocked the Atlanta Dream with two straight wins after dropping Game 1. Now they’re up 1-0 on the Aces, who came in red-hot after eliminating the Seattle Storm in three games and rolling off a 16-game winning streak to end the regular season.
The Fever being just two wins from the WNBA Finals is honestly a miracle and a testament to the healthy players who have stepped up. Kelsey Mitchell has played like an MVP, Aliyah Boston has been a boss down low and Lexie Hull has been the glue girl holding it all together.
Hull joined ESPN’s Vibe Check yesterday to talk about Indiana’s run, and she made sure that first-year head coach Stephanie White got credit for the team’s success, too.
“It’s honestly incredible,” Hull said of the job White has done. “I don’t think you can put anybody else out there with the hand we’ve been dealt and get the same outcome that we’ve got if we didn’t have her leading our ship, so we’re really grateful for her,” she added.
As a player, White led Purdue to the 1999 NCAA title and later played four of her five pro seasons with the Fever, which Hull cited when she called White “an Indiana legend.”
“It’s really great to have someone like that,” she said, “and Indiana fans love her, we love her, we believe in her, and she’s one of the smartest coaches I’ve played for,” Hull asserted with pride.
Hull deserves credit too, because she’s become the personification of the Fever’s toughness. A month ago she played through double black eyes after colliding with Storm forward Gabby Williams while going for a loose ball. That team-wide toughness has the Fever on the verge of their first Finals appearance in a decade, where they could get a long-awaited rematch with the top-seeded Lynx, who also lead 1-0 in their series.
