The Indiana Fever Are Amid a Brutal Schedule Stretch

The Indiana Fever have already passed the schedule test when it comes to proving they can beat elite opponents.

In fact, the Fever enter tonight's game in Toronto against the Tempo on a four-game winning streak, with a victory over the Chicago Sky being the only win that didn't come against a playoff team. The winning streak follows two losses to the Minnesota Lynx and Las Vegas Aces that went down to the wire and could have gone either way—particularly the Aces game, which the Fever let get away.

But what makes the schedule stretch they are in now brutal is not the winning percentage of the opponents, though they do face the Dallas Wings and New York Liberty again this week, but rather all the games being on the road and in a condensed timeframe.

Following the team's first-ever game in Canada versus the expansion Tempo, the Fever travel all the way down South to play in Dallas on Thursday. They then head to Brooklyn to take on the Liberty on Saturday. Exactly 24 hours later they are slated to take on the Sky in Chicago.

This of course comes after they were just in Atlanta to play the Dream on Sunday. All in all, that makes for a five game road trip in only eight days. When factoring in the travel in between games and the lack of rest afforded, coming out unscathed and with a winning record would go a long way toward the team getting where it ultimately needs to be.

It will be interesting to see whether the Fever elect to rest their stars at some point during this stretch, a la what the Aces did when they had a similar schedule run and sat their top three players on the second end of a back-to-back versus the Liberty. The Sky contest could be the prime candidate for such a strategy from Indiana.

A Real Rest Is on the Way

The good news is, following this run of games, the Fever have only one more before the World Cup break. Indiana hosts the Connecticut Sun on August 28 and then doesn't play again until September 18—once again in Toronto.

Caitlin Clark and Aliyah Boston are a part of USA Basketball World Cup roster that will head to Berlin, but it is unlikely their workload will be strenuous on the star-studded squad.

Remaining healthy is perhaps the single most important factor as the playoffs approach, because the Fever look like they can beat anyone at full strength.

Add us as a preferred source on Google