{"id":94249,"date":"2024-09-04T07:53:27","date_gmt":"2024-09-04T11:53:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=94249"},"modified":"2026-03-11T00:25:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T04:25:18","slug":"wnba-playoffs-race-indiana-fever-clinched","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/09\/04\/wnba-playoffs-race-indiana-fever-clinched\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA Playoffs Race: Indiana Fever Clinched Tuesday"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The WNBA playoffs are quickly approaching, and the race is starting to heat up after Tuesday\u2019s games. The top eight teams in the standings will clinch a spot on the 2024 playoffs schedule. The first seven WNBA teams have clinched, and the battle for the coveted last spot has begun.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>WNBA Playoffs Race: Indiana Fever Clinched Tuesday<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Indiana <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/09\/03\/wnba-growth-sparks-tension-between-pioneer-and-rising-star-swoopes-backlash\/\" target=\"_self\">Fever<\/a> have officially ended their seven-season playoff drought. They grabbed a playoff spot thanks to the Chicago Sky and Atlanta Dream losses on Tuesday. This marks the first time since 2016 that the Fever have clinched a playoff berth, and their seven-year absence was the longest active drought in the WNBA.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">WE&#39;RE IN.<\/p>\n<p>we have officially clinched a spot in the 2024 <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WNBA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@WNBA<\/a> playoffs \ud83d\udd25<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udcdd <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/lmq97tihkJ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/lmq97tihkJ<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/xK8Tg9izY4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/xK8Tg9izY4<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Indiana Fever (@IndianaFever) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/IndianaFever\/status\/1831180135040508159?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">September 4, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Indiana&#8217;s playoff appearance comes in the first season with rookie sensation <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/wnba\/players\/c\/clarkca02w.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Caitlin Clark<\/a>, who has broken all sorts of WNBA records. Clark, along with <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/wnba\/players\/b\/bostoal01w.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Aliyah Boston<\/a>, <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/wnba\/players\/s\/smithna01w.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NaLyssa Smith<\/a>, and <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/wnba\/players\/m\/mitchke01w.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kelsey Mitchell,<\/a> has formed a formidable core for the Fever. Despite early-season challenges, the Fever have shown significant improvement and are currently positioned for a successful playoff run.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Led by the play of Clark and Mitchell, the Fever has been scorching hot since the Olympic break. Their record of 6-1 has landed them the sixth seed in the WNBA standings. They are now +1800 to win the WNBA Finals.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>The Rest of the WNBA Playoff Picture and Finals Odds<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><b>New York Liberty:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The Liberty have maintained their dominant position at the top of the standings all season long; they are currently the favorites to win the WNBA championship at +120.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Connecticut Sun:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The Sun had a scorching start to the season but has cooled off during the second half. They are currently the No. 2 seed, but their finals odds are fourth longest at +550.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Minnesota Lynx:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The Lynx are the third seed in the WNBA standing and have the third-longest championship odds at +480.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Las Vegas Aces:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The defending champions have not performed consistently all season but are still Vegas\u2019s second most likely team to win the WNBA championship at +390.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Seattle Storm:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The Storm can still fight the Aces for homecourt advantage in the playoffs. Seattle is +1300 to win it all.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Phoenix Mercury:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The Mercury have just slipped in the playoffs but have the star power to possibly upset their higher-seeded competition. Phoenix is +4500 to take home the championship trophy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The Mercury take this one, 74-66. Kahleah Copper scored 28 points on 8-for-16 from the field. With that, they officially clinch the playoffs.<a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/WNBA?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#WNBA<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/ValleyTogether?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#ValleyTogether<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/hBUtdJxmIB\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/hBUtdJxmIB<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Hayden Cilley (@HaydenCilley) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HaydenCilley\/status\/1831180071488586106?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">September 4, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3><strong>The Final Spot is Still Open<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Chicago Sky, Atlanta Dream, Washington Mystics, and Dallas Wings are all battling for the final spot in the WNBA playoffs. The Sky currently holds the eighth spot, but their recent losing streak (seven straight games) has made them vulnerable to being overtaken. The Dream and Mystics are within striking distance, and the Wings are still mathematically alive but face a long road. The Mystics have been the most impressive team of the four, winning four of their last five games.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The WNBA playoffs are quickly approaching, and the race is starting to heat up after Tuesday\u2019s games. The top eight teams in the standings will clinch a spot on the 2024 playoffs schedule. The first seven WNBA teams have clinched, and the battle for the coveted last spot has begun. WNBA Playoffs Race: Indiana Fever [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5284,"featured_media":94270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,3],"tags":[2919,49063,4664,1632,3861],"class_list":["post-94249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-news","tag-aliyah-boston","tag-caitlin-clark","tag-nalyssa-smith","tag-wnba","tag-wnba-finals"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5284"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94249"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":181073,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94249\/revisions\/181073"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}