The Indiana Fever are missing out on the perfect chance to climb in the standings as they continue to drop games that Caitlin Clark is out for due to injury.
The Las Vegas Aces, another contender that has struggled out of the gate this season, just dropped a game to the up and coming Washington Mystics. That loss has them tied for the 8 seed with the Fever, as both clubs are now 7-8. With Indiana unable to come up with a win against the 10 seed Los Angeles Sparks, they weren't able to get ahead of the Aces by one game for the 8 seed.
Las Vegas' struggles do not seem fixable until some sort of consolidation trade or free agent signing is made to land them a better bench leader. Until then, the Fever have an opening available to them to at least salvage this rough start to their year by firmly cushioning a lead in the standings over the Aces.
Instead, Indiana is struggling to find offense when Clark is out, and really struggling to close games out when teams put pressure on them to simply not foul out of desperation - look at how the Fever just dropped its game to the Sparks: on back to back and-1s that led to a loss.
Indiana has to piece its 2nd halves together to gain momentum on Las Vegas
It has become clear that teams like the Washington Mystics and Golden State Valkyries, who entered this year as projected to only hit around 18-19 wins and are both almost halfway to those projected victories per ESPN, are not flukes.
Indiana, as a result, faces an uphill battle to regain momentum in the standings after a tumultuous start to the year behind Clark's injuries and the sudden waiving of DeWanna Bonner.
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With the Aces facing as many struggles as the Fever, it's clear that Indiana simply has to keep pace and be better than Las Vegas in the win column for the next few weeks leading into the All-Star break to maintain a postseason spot. If not, the team threatens to fumble what should be a contention year.
While the goal of landing somewhere in the 6-8 range of the standings may not be what Fever fans thought was Indiana's ceiling for this year, it still guarantees the team a postseason spot and a fighting chance to survive in the playoffs. Therefore, the team cannot let the opportunity to jump Las Vegas in the standings - and firmly - slip by.