Five straight days of three-game WNBA slates got underway Wednesday night, although not before some unfortunate news out of Indiana brought back memories of 2025. In the end, the Fever were the night’s lone home winner, as road teams now stand at 24-10 (.706) with the season just past the 10% mark (there are 330 total games). Here’s what else went down on Wednesday:
Indiana Fever 90, Portland Fire 73
Indiana welcomed Aliyah Boston back to the lineup following the first missed game of her career, and the 2023 No. 1 overall pick led the victorious Fever with 24 points on 8-for-11 from the field while Kelsey Mitchell scored 21 points and Lexie Hull — who was inserted into the starting five a couple games ago to help the defense — added 16 on 4-for-4 from the field (all from deep) and an identical shooting line at the charity stripe. The bad news for Indiana, which won for the second straight game, came about an hour before tip when it announced that Caitlin Clark would miss her first game of the 2026 season due to a back issue. The broadcast indicated that the team doesn’t expect her to miss significant time or for it to linger, but I’m sure I wasn’t the only person whose reaction was “ah shit, here we go again.”
Portland’s had memorable wins and forgettable losses so far, and that held true tonight. The Fire got 16 points from Bridget Carleton on 6-for-13 from the field and 14 from Sug Sutton on 6-for-8, but the rest of the team made just 36.6% (15-of-41). They have at least looked a little bit better on defense over the last two games, allowing the Sun and Fever to score at rates of 102.5 and 104.7 points per 100 possessions, respectively, after giving up offensive ratings of 121, 120 and 119 points per 100 possessions over the first three games, but I will repeat that the last two games were against the Sun and a version of the Fever without Clark. Portland’s next game will be a memorable one no matter the outcome as it travels across the border for its first meeting with expansion twin Toronto on Friday.
Dallas Wings 99, Chicago Sky 89
Paige Bueckers scored 24 points to lead Dallas while Arike Ogunbowale scored 23 and Jessica Shepard had the first triple-double of the WNBA season with 18 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists to give the Wings a second straight win since coach Jose Fernandez raised eyebrows by calling out his team publicly. Azzi Fudd also scored 12 points for the second straight game, going 4-for-6 this time to make her 10-for-15 (66.7%) from the field over that span. The Sky continued to show the fight that has been a hallmark in the early going, but couldn’t muster the firepower to keep up with the Wings in Chicago’s first game since losing top scorer Rickea Jackson for the season to a torn ACL. Only eight players saw the floor with DiJonai Carrington, Azurá Stevens and Courtney Vandersloot still sidelined in addition to Jackson. They went 5-for-21 from deep (23.8%) while Dallas was 9-for-21 (42.9%), with that discrepancy making up pretty much the whole difference in the game.
Connecticut Sun 80, Seattle Storm 78
The Sun got their first win of the year and one of their few remaining wins as the Sun, thanks to some very shoddy transition defense from the Storm in the closing moments and a missed look for the win from Natisha Hiedeman at the buzzer. It was by no means a pretty game, with both starting centers (Brittney Griner and Dominique Malonga) sidelined, but it got us one step closer to the Sun being no more. That’s a win by my standards!