For the first time since 2016, the Indiana Fever are in the WNBA playoffs, earning the No. 6 seed this season. If you want to trace back to their last playoff win, however, that was another year back in the history books, on October 11th, 2015.

Since that last playoff win, the Fever have employed six different head coaches, had a bottom-two record five times, including three years as the worst team in the league, and they have changed arenas three times. Success for the Fever is a long time coming, but it did not happen overnight. Well, it kind of did actually.

The Fever were lucky enough to receive the first pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft, where they had the easiest choice to make of all time: drafting Caitlin Clark.

Clark has been incredibly valuable to her team and to the popularity of the league as a whole, transcending what fans thought were possible for the W. Clark owns nearly every rookie record there is to hold, and a plethora of other WNBA records. She will certainly be the Rookie of the Year, and could easily end up 2nd in MVP voting.

But she has not done it by herself. Kelsey Mitchell has been an elite scorer for years in the league but is finally starting to get the recognition that she deserves, in large part because the Fever are not bottom-feeders anymore.

Aliyah Boston has also taken an incredible leap in year 2, as her and Clark bring out the best in each others’ games. Lexie Hull has also been the hottest shooter in the second half of the season, and her contributions on both ends of the floor have been invaluable to the Fever.

The road for the Fever, however, will not be easy. They face the No. 3 seed Connecticut Sun in the first round, who finished with a 28-12 record in 2024. Not only this, but the Sun have been in the playoffs every year since 2017, and not once have they lost in the first round.

Two polar-opposite teams will face off in the first round of the playoffs; here’s where and when to watch:

Where and when to watch the Indiana Fever in the first round of the WNBA playoffs:

The Sun have a handful of veteran players with tons of experience like DeWanna Bonner and Brionna Jones, but they also have one of the best players in the league in Alyssa Thomas. The do-it-all forward was a key piece of Team USA Women’s Basketball this Summer in Paris, where she helped the squad earn a Gold Medal.

Connecticut also added Marina Mabrey from the Chicago Sky at the Olympic break, who has played a pivotal role since she got to the northeast.

This should be an incredible series, and I would put the Sun on upset watch.

This article was originally published on fansided.com as Indiana Fever playoff schedule and results (Updated Sept. 21).