The Indiana Fever will open its 15th anniversary season with back-to-back games against a pair of clubs it faced in the 2013 playoffs. Indiana opens at Chicago on May 16 before hosting a home opener on May 17 (7 p.m.) against the Atlanta Dream.
The home opening game is a repeat of playoff series the past three years and features the Eastern Conference champs from each of the past five seasons (Indiana in 2009, 2012; Atlanta in 2010, 2011, 2013).
The Fever will play 34 regular-season games in just 93 days, ending the regular season on Aug. 17. To accommodate scheduling for the FIBA World Championships in late September, the WNBA schedule will end earlier than in any season since 2006.
Returning from a ninth straight playoff appearance in 2013, and 10 in 14 years, Indiana begins its 15th WNBA season under the direction of seventh-year coach Lin Dunn. Dunn is the winningest coach in Fever history and seventh in league history, leading Indiana to six consecutive playoff berths and four years with at least 20 wins.
The Fever’s schedule includes 22 games against the Eastern Conference and 12 against the West. The Fever plays four games apiece against Eastern foes Connecticut, New York and Washington; and squares off against Atlanta and Chicago five times. Home and away games are scheduled against each of six Western Conference opponents.
Indiana closes the regular season with three of four games against conference rival Bill Laimbeer and the New York Liberty, culminating at Madison Square Garden on Aug. 17. Schedule highlights include:
- Three Fever games will be televised nationally on ESPN2, all in July against 2013 playoff teams. Indiana’s national TV debut is at Atlanta on July 1. Indiana hosts 2013 MVP Candace Parker and the Los Angeles Sparks on July 15 (8 p.m.). The Fever battles 2013 WNBA Rookie of the Year Elena Delle Donne during its third and final visit to Chicago, July 22.
- The longest homestand of the season features four games opened by Indiana’s annual Kids Day game on July 10 (12:30 p.m.) when the Connecticut Sun visit. The afternoon contest has annually drawn one of the Fever’s largest crowds of the season.
- The schedule features three visits by the Atlanta Dream, Angel McCoughtry and newly hired coach Michael Cooper. Following the Fever’s home opener, the Dream return to Bankers Life Fieldhouse for subsequent visits on June 29 (6 p.m.) and July 12 (7 p.m.).
- Defending WNBA champion Minnesota visits Indianapolis on Aug. 5 (7 p.m.)
- Indiana’s schedule opens with eight straight games against the Eastern Conference. The Fever also will close with five straight against the East.
For more information, visit Feverbasketball.com.
