Fever vs Mystics Game Carries Extra Stakes in Dream Playoff Race

The Indiana Fever's game against the Washington Mystics carried major playoff implications for several reasons.

Caitlin Clark celebrates during an Indiana Fever vs. Washington Mystics game. | IMAGO / Icon Sportswire

The Indiana Fever's home game against the Washington Mystics on Sunday has major implications, given how meaningful each win and loss is to where the Fever will finish in the regular season standings right now.

However, this game carries extra stakes on top of how it might impact Indiana's final regular season record.

Fever beat reporter Tony East made an X post mentioning how if the Fever beat the Mystics on Sunday, they will be 10-11 against teams that have a .500 record or better.

This is important because a team's record in games against other .500+ teams is the second playoff-seeding tiebreaker after head-to-head record.

The Atlanta Dream are 28-14. The Fever will be 28-14 if they beat Washington on Sunday. These two teams tied the season series 2-2, which means that if they finish the regular season with the same record, their respective records against .500+ teams will determine the higher seed.

Atlanta is 9-11 against teams with a .500+ record. Therefore, Indiana beating Washington will mean the Fever have a better record against .500+ teams (10-11) than Atlanta and will have the playoff seeding advantage.

But there's an important caveat: Both teams still have two more regular season games. The Dream will play the New York Liberty twice, while the Fever will play the Minnesota Lynx twice.

New York and Minnesota are both .500+ teams. So if the Fever and the Dream finish these final two games with the same record (either 2-0, 1-1, or 0-2), it will not only mean they finish with the same regular-season record, but the Fever will also maintain their superior record against .500+ teams.

In short, if the Fever beat the Mystics, Indiana would clinch the two-team tiebreaker advantage over Atlanta for any scenario in which the teams finish with the same record.

Caitlin Clark dribbles past Sonia Citron in an Indiana Fever vs. Washington Mystics game. | IMAGO / Icon Sportswire

Fever Can't Claim No. 2 Seed After Valkyries Victory

As of Saturday, there was still a chance that the Fever would claim the No. 2 seed behind the Lynx. That's no longer the case, as the Golden State Valkyries secured a top-two seed with their win against the Seattle Storm on Saturday night.

The Fever were highly unlikely to take that No. 2 seed anyway. They're still in the running for the No. 3 seed, and could fall as far as No. 8 if they lost their final three games.

Potential playoff seeding will become much clearer after Sunday's slate of games, but Fever fans won't know where they end up and who they'll face in the first round until the regular season ends.