INDIANAPOLIS— Indiana Fever coach Christie Sides likes to say she only hopes her team gets one percent better every game. However, five games into the renewed WNBA season following the Summer Olympics break, the Fever is playing about 1,000 percent better than it did at the beginning of the year.

Wednesday night, the Fever huffed and puffed its way to an 84-80 victory over the 22-8 Connecticut Sun, the league’s second-place team, following three losses to that club earlier in the season.

When the Fever was starting 1-8, Indiana might not have been able to best Connecticut competing with a one-player hockey-like advantage, five on four. Now the Fever is 15-16, topping Connecticut for the first time in 11 tries since 2021.

Also, even if everyone seems to prefer the word be whispered, the last nine regular-season games will be defined by playoffs. Whether the Fever can reach the playoffs for the first time since 2016 or not.

As of Thursday, the Fever was seventh overall in the standings, with the top eight making the post-season.

Pre-game, when asked how often she talks to players about the playoffs, Sides responded tongue-in-cheek. “Playoffs? I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said. When the win was in the bank, Sides said, “For us to grind this out, it helps us get where we want to be. We’re making big steps to get there.”

“There” is the playoffs.

During the Fever’s recent post-Olympic surge, the team has put distance between itself and Chicago (which Indiana meets Friday night), Atlanta, Washington, Los Angeles and Dallas in the playoff race and is just one game behind Phoenix.

Sides touted “maturation and toughness” as defining traits the Fever acquired since the poor start.

“There were some dark days,” Sides said. “They just kept improving.”

The fans – again a 17,274-person sellout – are watching the Fever grow up, Sides said. And the hot streak of 4-1 since the Olympic time out is appreciated.

The frenzied Fever following expands and cheers the team on, not only at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, but on the road, where a standing-room-only Georgia state record for women’s basketball appeared at State Farm Arena during Indiana’s Monday win over the Dream.

Wednesday night, there were three other WNBA non-Fever games and attendance ranged from 8,000 to 10,000.

Attending Fever basketball and seeing rookie guard Caitlin Clark up close has apparently has become a trendy thing to do. Wednesday’s audience included David Letterman, gymnastics star Simone Biles, track star Gabby Thomas and Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson.

Not long ago, the Fever conducted a half-time eating contest, akin to the Coney Island hot-dog eating deal on July 4. Only this was sponsored by St. Elmo’s, the steak house in downtown Indianapolis renowned for its shrimp cocktail and its very hot sauce. Three eaters dug in with their hands for 45 seconds of how-fast-can-you-chomp.

It was a sight not seen every day. But not so long ago, neither was a Fever victory.

The celebrity visitors caught a pretty good basketball show. Indiana led 33-25 after one quarter and 51-42 at the half, before allowing Connecticut a brief lead at 77-75, before that toughness kicked in. Sides could not get over her bunch holding the Sun without a point in the last 2 minutes, 50 seconds with a reborn defense that once was suspect, calling it incredible.

The Fever put five players in double figures, again led by Kelsey Mitchell’s 23 points. Shaking hands with Mitchell right now would scorch fingers, she is so hot on her mix of three-pointers and drives. This was Mitchell’s fifth straight game with at least 20 points. No one else has done that in Fever history.

Overtaking Connecticut for the first time in 2024 was meaningful.

“It’s who we are,” Mitchell said of the Fever being a gritty bunch. “It’s what we can do as a group. I did feel like it was a playoff atmosphere.”

This is Mitchell’s seventh season with the Fever and she has not been to the playoffs yet.

“Right now, it’s about winning as many games as possible to get in the playoffs,” she said.

Clark had 19 points and five assists and her three 3-pointers gave her a league rookie record of 88 for a season. Lexie Hull started in place of Katie Lou Samuelson, out for personal reasons, and along with her long arms on defense and sharpness on offense contributed 17 points and 8 rebounds. NaLyssa Smith and Aliyah Boston each put in 10 points. Boston had eight assists, a rarity for the 6-foot-5 center.

Hull, a 6-1, third-year player from Stanford, has emerged from bench obscurity. On Aug. 8 she hit six 3-pointers and scored 22 points against Seattle. Her hustle on the boards and on defense was as notable as the scoring.

“I think one-through-12, we have confidence in everyone on the team,” Hull said.

Clark, who summed up setting the 3-point record by saying, “It’s cool,” isn’t scared to mention the playoffs. “That’s been our goal since day one.”