Two nights earlier, Caitlin Clark had looked almost unstoppable against Minnesota.
She scored 27 points.
She handed out nine assists.
She grabbed seven rebounds, added four steals and helped Indiana build a 29-point lead against the best team in the WNBA.
After that victory, Clark said the Fever were dangerous when everything connected.
“We’re scary when we’re clicking.”
Forty-eight hours later, almost nothing clicked.
Clark missed her first several shots.
Kelsey Mitchell could not find a rhythm.
Aliyah Boston left with another lower-leg issue.
Ty Harris had to be carried from the court after injuring her left ankle.
And before halftime had even arrived, the Indiana Fever were staring at a 30-point deficit.
The final score was Minnesota 86, Indiana 66.
It was Indiana’s lowest-scoring game of the season.
It was Clark’s lowest-scoring game of the season.
And instead of entering the playoffs riding the confidence of that huge home win over Minnesota, the Fever suddenly found themselves answering a much more uncomfortable question.
Which version of this team is heading to Las Vegas?
Minnesota Flipped Everything in Less Than Two Days
Indiana’s 96-77 victory over the Lynx on Tuesday had been one of the Fever’s most impressive performances of the year.
The rematch barely resembled the same matchup.
Minnesota led 32-13 after the first quarter and 62-32 at halftime.
At one point, the Lynx advantage reached 36 points.
There were no lead changes and no ties. Indiana never controlled a single stretch of the game before Minnesota’s starters were eventually able to spend much of the second half resting.
Kayla McBride scored 22 points and made six three-pointers.
Natasha Howard added 21.
Courtney Williams controlled the offense with nine points, seven rebounds and 10 assists.
And Minnesota did all of it without rookie guard Olivia Miles, who missed her second consecutive game with a left calf injury.
Indiana, meanwhile, looked completely disconnected.
The contrast could hardly have been sharper.
Clark Had a Night She Will Want to Forget Quickly
Clark finished with two points.
Not 22.
Two.
She shot 1-for-12 from the field and missed all seven of her three-point attempts in just under 18 minutes. She added four rebounds, three assists and one steal.
For a player who entered the night averaging more than 22 points per game, it was an extraordinary statistical outlier.
It was also not evidence that Clark had suddenly forgotten how to play basketball.
Bad shooting nights happen.
The concern for Indiana was that almost everybody had one simultaneously.
Mitchell went 3-for-12 and finished with 10 points, ending her remarkable run of 20-point performances.
Lexie Hull shot 2-for-7.
Boston made two of five attempts before leaving.
As a team, Indiana shot only 34.2 percent from the floor and an ugly 5-for-32 from three-point range — 15.6 percent.
This was not one star being unable to rescue everyone else.
This was an entire starting group losing its offensive rhythm together.
Was Clark Really Being “Iced Out”?
That is where the viral commentary surrounding the game becomes more complicated.
Some fans have interpreted Indiana’s recent coaching decisions as evidence that Clark is being minimized or disrespected by Stephanie White and her staff.
The YouTube commentary pointed specifically to White and other coaches wearing Kelsey Mitchell-themed apparel while arguing that Clark had not received equivalent public support for her own accomplishments.
That may create a perception among fans.
It does not establish basketball sabotage.
Nothing in Thursday’s box score suggests Clark was frozen out of the offense.
She attempted 12 shots in fewer than 18 minutes.
Seven were threes.
Indiana simply did not make them.
There is also no evidence from the game itself that White intentionally prevented Clark from establishing a rhythm.
By halftime, Indiana was down 30 in a regular-season finale with the playoffs only days away.
Continuing to extend heavy minutes to the starters under those circumstances would have introduced its own risks.
And those risks became painfully obvious as the night continued.
The Bigger Problem Was Health
Boston played only 13 minutes before leaving with a right lower-leg issue.
Afterward, White said Boston had experienced a flare-up of the injury that had bothered her earlier in the season and that Indiana held her out as a precaution.
Then the scene became considerably more concerning.
Harris attacked the basket during the third quarter, landed awkwardly and immediately went down.
She remained on the floor for several minutes while holding her left ankle before members of the Fever staff carried her to the locker room.
Indiana officially ruled her out with a left ankle injury.
As of the immediate postgame period, White did not have a further update on Harris.
That uncertainty matters far more than an online argument about T-shirts.
The postseason is here.
Indiana does not have another week to heal.
One Loss Also Changed Indiana’s Playoff Path
The Fever finished the regular season 28-16.
Because Washington defeated Chicago and held the relevant tiebreaker, Indiana dropped to the No. 6 seed.
Their first-round opponent is now official:
The defending champion Las Vegas Aces.
Game 1 is Sunday in Las Vegas.
Game 2 moves to Indiana on Tuesday.
If a deciding Game 3 is required, the series returns to Las Vegas.
That sounds brutal.
It also comes with one important piece of context.
Indiana won the regular-season series against Las Vegas 2-1.
The Fever beat the Aces 84-68 on July 5 and demolished them 109-75 one week later. Las Vegas won the third meeting 86-84 in overtime.
So Indiana is not entering a matchup against an opponent it has shown no ability to beat.
Quite the opposite.
The problem is timing.
Las Vegas enters the postseason having won seven consecutive games.
Indiana has lost two of its final three and is now monitoring injuries to two rotation players.
The Fever Are Still Historically Dangerous on Offense
One ugly finale should not erase the larger season.
Indiana finished with the most explosive offense in WNBA history at 96 points per game.
Clark and Mitchell combined to average 47 points, making them the highest-scoring duo the league has seen over a season.
Boston still finished at 16.1 points and eight rebounds per game.
Those numbers explain why the Fever remain dangerous despite Thursday’s disaster.
Las Vegas cannot build a postseason game plan around the assumption that Clark will shoot 1-for-12 again.
It cannot assume Mitchell will score only 10.
And Indiana cannot assume Boston will be limited to 13 minutes.
The Fever offense that scored 96 against Minnesota on Tuesday is still the same offense that scored 66 on Thursday.
That contradiction is now Indiana’s defining playoff question.
Maybe the Worst Thing About the Loss Was the Timing
If this game happened in June, everyone would move on.
There would be practice.
Film review.
Another game three days later.
Instead, Indiana now carries the performance directly into the postseason.
That is why the loss feels bigger than a normal bad shooting night.
The Fever wanted momentum.
They got uncertainty.
They wanted health.
They left Minneapolis with Boston managing another flare-up and Harris unable to leave the floor without assistance.
They wanted clarity heading into the playoffs.
Instead, they produced their fewest points of the year and their worst field-goal percentage in the final game of the regular season.
But perhaps there is one useful reminder hidden inside the disaster.
Two days before Minnesota made Indiana look hopeless, Indiana made Minnesota look hopeless.
That is how dramatically this Fever team can swing.
Clark can go from 27 points and near-triple-double territory to two points.
Indiana can go from beating the No. 1 seed by 19 to losing to the same team by 20.
Now there are no more regular-season games available to smooth those extremes out.
The next one counts.
Caitlin Clark does not need a social-media argument about whether her coaches respect her.
She needs her shot back.
Boston needs her leg to cooperate.
Indiana needs to know whether Harris can play.
And Stephanie White needs to find a playoff rotation capable of surviving against A’ja Wilson, Jackie Young and a Las Vegas team entering Sunday on a seven-game winning streak.
The regular season ended with Indiana looking as vulnerable as it has all year.
The playoffs will reveal whether that was one terrible night — or a warning that arrived at exactly the wrong time.