Caitlin Clark: 3-game winning streak is 'huge' for Fever's confidence

For the first time this year, the Indiana Fever have a winning streak. Wednesday night marked their third straight victory, defeating the Washington Mystics 88-81 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse behind another strong performance.

Caitlin Clark was at the center of it with 18 points, 12 rebounds, six assists and four steals to help lead the charge. Aliyah Boston and Kelsey Mitchell led Indiana in scoring with 22 points each as the Fever put together another all-around effort to improve to 6-10 on the season.

It seems like Indiana is starting to hit its stride after a rough start to the year – although a tough schedule didn’t help. What stood out to Clark, though, was the complete performances that propelled the franchise to three straight wins, all of which came on the home court.

“It’s huge,” Clark told the NBA TV broadcast after the game. “When you can stack these wins, that gives everybody confidence. We’re a young group, so I think we’re starting to see our our potential and what we’re able to do. I think Aliyah’s been amazing. Kelsey Mitchell’s been great. Everybody’s been contributing in ways that they need to, and it’s been fun.

“These have been team wins. It hasn’t been any individual that’s been doing it at all for us. And when we have that balance, I think it’s really hard for the other teams to guard us.”

It seems like the connection between Clark and Boston, in particular, is starting to find its stride. Over the last three games, the former South Carolina star is averaging 22.6 points after an up-and-down start to the year. As for Clark, the court vision that stood out at Iowa is again showing up at the professional level.

But for the Fever as a team, they came together in the fourth quarter to fight off a Washington run to eventually get the victory. Indiana stood strong on defense, and clark said that’s going to be important the rest of the year to turn things around.

“I thought we ran our actions well, I thought we got good shots there at the end,” Clark said of how the Fever closed the game out. “I thought that we could have been a little more crisp in a few areas. Took care of the ball for the most part, and then came up with some big stops.

“That’s what it’s gonna take. It’s gonna be on the defensive end. When they went on a run, we found a way to nail it down and get some stops on the defensive end.”

Caitlin Clark: ‘You can’t look too far ahead’ in WNBA

After three straight home games, Indiana will now head back on the road, starting with a Friday matchup against the Atlanta Dream. In fact, the next two contests will be against teams that came to Indiana during the home stand, including another rematch with Angel Reese and the Chicago Sky on Sunday.

As the Fever hit the road, Caitlin Clark said it’s important to avoid looking too far beyond the next game. Keeping the confidence will be paramount, as well.

“Two teams that we’re really familiar with and played last week,” Clark said of the upcoming road trip. “So I think just take it one game at a time. You can’t look too far ahead in this league. Everybody’s really good and these teams that we’re gonna play this next week are gonna want some revenge after we beat them this last week. And then, we go on a West Coast swing with three games.

“Like I said, one game at a time, but we feel like we can go into any game and believe we’re gonna win. That’s what’s gonna take.”