For most of the season, the Fever have been running at lower than 98.6, so they haven’t been too hot. At least on the court. That’s why beating the Chicago Sky, 71-70, Saturday, was so satisfying.

It was only the second victory of the WNBA season for Indiana, but Gainbridge Fieldhouse was jammed, the fans, who all seemed to shop at the same sports outlet store, wore booster T-shirts cheering rookie Caitlin Clark and the Fever, and were as loud as if a jet plane landed on the roof.

This was a sellout of 17,274, the third time in five home games the Fever filled the building. Including the other two attendance marks of 16,013 and 15,022, the team topped last year’s 20-game total of 81,336 fans at 82,857. Yes, in five games.

Now that’s how the Fever has been running hot, with a temperature of about 106.1, like radio station the River on the dial. Very feverish, even for a basketball-centric community, given the team is 2-9 after losing to New York by 36 points Sunday night.

That’s bad enough the Fever could obtain the No. 1 draft pick for a third year in a row, after center Aliyah Boston and Clark. Right now, after playing every other day, they get four days off to practice and watch film this week, movies that might get very low rankings on Rotten Tomatoes.

Mostly, this first 25 percent of the season has been driven over an unpaved road pockmarked by potholes and washouts. The world is watching Clark, the league’s No. 1 overall draft pick who set scoring and assist records for Iowa, with polarized viewpoints ranging of: 1) When will she be granted sainthood; or 2) She ain’t as good as advertised.

Clark, who scored 11 points with 8 rebounds and 6 assists versus Chicago, then scored just three versus New York on 1-for-10 shooting, is in the middle of everything. She is being dissected with X-ray vision, has hit a high of 30 points and a low with 10 turnovers, as more of a rookie with promise than a miracle worker.

Saturday, Fever coach Christie Sides, who has been harping on the need to play better defense, pumped up Indiana-Chicago as a battle for Midwest supremacy, a dormant rivalry come back to life. The Sky have two of the other key figures in this heralded rookie class in forward Angel Reese and center Kamilla Cardoso.

The Fever, who had five double-figure scorers, including guard Kelsey Mitchell with 18 points and forward NaLyssa Smith with 17, led by nine points with about three minutes to go, but almost blew the game. It took a Sky missed free throw for the Fever to survive without overtime.

Heck, it may be problematical for Clark to survive at all. Whether it is resentment from individual players about the amount of attention she receives, or teams adopting a defensive strategy to smack her regularly, figuring refs can call only so much, Clark has been the victim of some overlooked hard-hitting fouls.

Against Seattle recently, Clark was railroaded off the ball on a drive with no call. Sides, who had fretted about Clark getting too many technical fouls for protesting, took the technical this time. TV broadcaster Rebecca Lobo said Sides was justified to be irate.

Saturday was the biggie, though. Chicago’s Chennedy Carter body-slammed Clark to the floor for no reason. If it was a hockey game, Carter would have been exiled to the penalty box for two minutes for charging.

Sides seethed about the hit not being a flagrant foul, but post-game she said she didn’t want to get fined by the league. Instead, she sent video to the league and swiftly the W upgraded the contact to a flagrant foul.

For now, Clark is taking the turn-the-other-cheek Biblical high road. She knew the WNBA would be more physical than college. She said she has chosen not to retaliate “and accept it. Don’t let them get inside your head.” Hopefully, later she won’t snap and fight back with an overhand right. That might start a riot in Indy.

As is, the Fever is so used to having crowds smaller by the thousands of degrees it has overreacted in pumping up the volume. Whether it is rock music, dancers, emcees running around promoting promotions, throwing prizes into the stands, selling souvenirs, the games are on the verge of becoming more hoopla than hoops. The Fever even violated the cardinal-sin rule of playing music when action resumed. That is a big no-no.

In its own way, the most off-beat play in the Chicago game was the last one. Instead of dribbling out the clock, Clark hurled the ball roof-ward in the last seconds.

That exuberance is usually shown when a team clinches a championship. Clark said it was a strategy move because the clock is running and no one can foul.

“I don’t know why more people don’t do that,” she said.

Clark joked she hoped the ball didn’t hit the scoreboard and damage getting facility maintenance angry at her. Or maybe she was mischievously hoping the ball would land on Carter’s head.