Fever's window for top seed is wide open after huge injury on contending team

While the Indiana Fever keep fighting to stay hovering around .500 through a brutal stretch of games, they're also likely monitoring how well teams above them in the standings are doing considering the number of players departing for international cup games and players out due to injury.

One of the teams they have to be keeping close tabs on is the New York Liberty. New York, which just dropped a rematch against the Fever, is dealing with a crucial injury in their starting lineup with Jonquel Jones expected out for the next 4-6 weeks. Jones is one of the teams' best defenders, and the glue to their front court.

While the Liberty have depth that can feasibly help to fill in for Jones in the meantime, they're also about to embark on a more difficult part to their schedule than what they saw to begin the season. Indiana, on the flip side, just got a whole lot healthier with Caitlin Clark and Sophie Cunningham both returning to the roster after dealing with injuries.

If Indiana can lock in and handle business against the white-hot Seattle Storm, the Los Angeles Sparks, and the Dallas Wings over this next week leading into their Commissioner's Cup game against the Minnesota Lynx, then there's a good shot they can move up the standings as the Liberty risk falling a bit with Jones out.

Fever can leapfrog in standings with strong play & Liberty woes

New York is one of the top teams in the league dealing with some lingering injury issues. The Lynx's star forward Napheesa Collier has been in and out of contests recently with back issues, leaving teams like the Phoenix Mercury, Storm, and Atlanta Dream to stay well within the hunt for top seeding in the WNBA.

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With Indiana amongst the contending teams that actually has health on their side right now, they have a golden opportunity to move up and sit somewhere around the 4 or 5 seed comfortably. While it feels too rich to say that they can move past the Lynx, Storm, Mercury, or Dream at this juncture, with a potential Liberty slip, they can just slide up.

This would mean a whole lot ahead of the All-Star break and ahead of the postseason. If they can snag home court advantage in the first round at the very least, they have an advantage on their side.