{"id":98403,"date":"2025-06-14T15:00:30","date_gmt":"2025-06-14T15:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/98403\/"},"modified":"2025-06-14T15:00:30","modified_gmt":"2025-06-14T15:00:30","slug":"the-ties-that-bind-the-wnbas-fever-and-nbas-pacers-are-more-than-just-neighbors-in-indianapolis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/98403\/","title":{"rendered":"The ties that bind: The WNBA’s Fever and NBA’s Pacers are more than just neighbors in Indianapolis"},"content":{"rendered":"

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) \u2014 Caitlin Clark is doubly disappointed about how the NBA Finals<\/a> are going right now.<\/p>\n

One, the Indiana Pacers lost Game 4<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Two, Clark can\u2019t be there for Game 6.<\/p>\n

Clark and the Indiana Fever have a good reason for why they won\u2019t be at the Pacers\u2019 last home game of the season on Thursday, when Indiana \u2014 which will be either up 3-2 or down 3-2 to the Oklahoma City Thunder by then, depending how Game 5 on Monday goes \u2014 plays host to Game 6 of the NBA Finals.<\/p>\n

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The Fever will be at Golden State that night, playing the expansion Valkyries.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was hoping they’d win it in five,\u201d Clark said.<\/p>\n

That can’t happen now. But somehow, some way, the Fever will be paying some sort of attention to what\u2019s going on at home Thursday night. The Pacers and Fever aren\u2019t just neighbors. They\u2019re basically basketball family. They have the same ownership, play their games in the same building, cross paths with the other all the time.<\/p>\n

And they rave about one another, with players from one team almost always cheering on the other.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think young kids, if you watch basketball, you turn on and watch the Pacers,\u201d Clark said. \u201cIt\u2019s unselfish. They play for each other. They play fast. They play up-tempo. They do things the right way. Whether you\u2019re a starter or whether you\u2019re coming off the bench, you\u2019re giving everything you can to your team. It\u2019s really fun to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Much has been made of how this is a special time for basketball<\/a> in basketball-mad Indianapolis, and the Pacers and Fever are both reveling in it.<\/p>\n

The Pacers played host to the 2024 NBA All-Star Game and went to the Eastern Conference finals last season. The Fever flipped how many people think about the WNBA last season in Clark\u2019s rookie year, with swarms flocking to their games \u2014 home and away \u2014 to see the former Iowa star play. There\u2019s the NBA Finals going on now. The WNBA All-Star Game is coming to Indy this summer, and it\u2019s not hard to envision Clark and the Fever making a deep playoff run of their own this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s an incredible player, someone that I have a ton of respect for, also a good person,\u201d Pacers guard T.J. McConnell said. \u201cI\u2019ve been following her career, especially when she got drafted by the Fever. We all are happy to have her in Indy. It\u2019s been fun to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clark and Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton are close friends, and that\u2019s just one of the many real and deep ties between the franchises. It\u2019s not a big deal to see Pacers players at Fever games; it always happens. It\u2019s not a big deal to see Fever players at Pacers games; they\u2019re always there, too.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s been amazing watching the Pacers,\u201d Fever guard Sophie Cunningham said. \u201cThey\u2019re so much fun to watch. I think we resemble their team quite a bit in the way we move the ball and the way we\u2019re trying to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fever coach Stephanie White played her high school and college basketball in the state of Indiana, then spent the bulk of her WNBA playing career with the Fever. Nobody needs to explain to her what the game means in the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was here the last time the Pacers were in the finals, back in 2000,\u201d White said. \u201cI remember being in the building and just feeling all that energy. It\u2019s exciting. There\u2019s no better place, the epicenter of basketball in Indiana and Indianapolis.\u201d<\/p>\n

She sees some parallels between how the Pacers built a contender and how the Fever are trying to become one again.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe way that they\u2019ve built and rebuilt with the roster, the patience that they\u2019ve shown in the roster and in roster movement, the adversity that they faced early in the year,\u201d White said. \u201cThey were this fast, exciting offensive team a year ago to being a solid defensive team that has won regular-season games and playoff games for them when the offense wasn\u2019t really flowing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soon, the Fever will be the only game in town again. The NBA season is nearly over. There are either two or three games left. And then, the Pacers will take their seats in the crowd to watch the Fever for the next few weeks.<\/p>\n

Clark made it clear: The teams really do get a benefit from being around the other.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore than anything they\u2019re just really good people,\u201d Clark said. \u201cThey\u2019re good guys. So, I\u2019ve been really fortunate to be here during this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/nba<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INDIANAPOLIS (AP) \u2014 Caitlin Clark is doubly disappointed about how the NBA Finals are going right now. One,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3774],"tags":[7,455,3732,479,113,459,126,3866,2624,6,1220,179,114,3748,3886,278],"class_list":{"0":"post-98403","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-indiana-pacers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-caitlin-clark","10":"tag-fever","11":"tag-golden-state","12":"tag-indiana","13":"tag-indiana-fever","14":"tag-indiana-pacers","15":"tag-indianapacers","16":"tag-indianapolis","17":"tag-nba","18":"tag-nba-finals","19":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","20":"tag-pacers","21":"tag-sophie-cunningham","22":"tag-t-j-mcconnell","23":"tag-tyrese-haliburton"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114682319627010687","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}