Heading into Tuesday’s home game against the Storm, the Indiana Fever had fallen to 8th in the WNBA Playoff race, but played the game like they knew it and wanted to do something about it.

From the start, the team hustled after every loose ball and rebound and played with an increased intensity, pressuring Seattle at every turn.

➡️  Fever v Storm photos

Aliyah Boston and Natasha Howard were unstoppable forces on the glass and in the paint, while Kelsey Mitchell and Odyssey Sims shot lights-out from beyond the arc, with Mitchell setting the Fever record for points in a season.

The Storm were just cold from the field, missing multiple easy shots, with Skylar Diggins finishing with just six points and Nneka Ogwumike struggled for the 17 points she had.

Having lost four out of their last five games, and the Playoff race really heating up in the final stretch of the season, Seattle was a must-win game for the Fever.  The evening was the perfect combination of home-court advantage and red-hot shooting, with the Fever seeing a 30-point lead at one point, enroute to a 20-point win.

With Tuesday’s win, the Fever jumped over Golden State and Seattle in the Playoff standings, heading into an important three-game road trip that starts Friday in Los Angeles before they travel to Golden State and Phoenix. The team will then return home next Friday to face Chicago.

-Reggie Edwards