Sep. 8—INDIANAPOLIS — While there is still plenty to improve upon over their final handful of regular season games before the playoffs, the Indiana Fever showed plenty of growth and resilience in Sunday's home tilt against the Atlanta Dream.

Head coach Christie Sides and the Fever were miserable halfway through the game and appeared headed to a second straight defeat on multiple occasions.

But this young team found a way.

Caitlin Clark sealed things in overtime while Aliyah Boston was dominant in the paint, and both recorded a double-double to help Indiana overcome a double-digit deficit and hand Atlanta a 104-100 loss in overtime at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

Indiana (19-17) holds a two-game lead with four games to play over the Phoenix Mercury for the sixth seed in the upcoming WNBA playoffs. Atlanta fell to 12-23 after entering the game tied with Chicago for the eighth and final spot. The Sky — playing without injured forward Angel Reese for the remainder of the season — defeated Dallas 92-77 on Sunday to drop the Dream into the ninth position and out of the playoff picture for the moment.

Indiana also completed a sweep of its four games against Atlanta this season.

Winning the game despite playing a poor first half that included 13 turnovers — most were unforced errors — and a five-point halftime deficit that grew to 16 at one point in the third quarter, showed Sides something new in her team.

"This game showed a lot of growth in our players," she said. "When you talk about that third quarter, we held them to four or five points in the last five minutes and then the same thing in the fourth quarter. ... We just need to turn it on sooner."

Aside from a 5-0 start, there was not much for the Fever fans to get excited about until well into the second half.

Indiana took a 22-21 lead after the first quarter as Boston scored in the lane, but the seeds for what became a tough first half were already planted as the Fever committed six first-quarter turnovers. They coughed it up seven more times in the second quarter as Rhyne Howard and the Dream finished the half on a 10-4 run with Jordin Canada draining a 3-pointer at the buzzer for a 49-44 lead.

Clark made a beeline for the locker room as an angry Fever team looked to reset after handing Atlanta the lead.

"We had a lot of turnovers in the first half, and it was impressive that we were still in the game considering they took 15 more shots than us," Clark said. "That was almost a positive ... we felt like we were right there even though we played a crappy half."

"We just weren't executing. We were going under screens, and we weren't supposed to go under," Sides said. "It was a lot of growth today."

Things did not get better for the Fever at the outset of the second half.

In actuality, they got much, much worse.

Tina Charles scored a three-point play on a rebound basket to open the third for the Dream before Howard hit an elbow jumper and a 3-point shot to blow up the Fever deficit to 57-44, prompting Sides to call time out with 9:00 left in the period.

"I just encouraged them during that timeout that we needed to change some things," Sides said.

A Clark basket and a pair of Boston free throws did little to slow the Dream's second-half momentum as they took their biggest lead at 64-48 on a Canada basket.

But, as Clark pointed out, there was plenty of time for the Fever to chip away.

Five straight points by Kelsey Mitchell, two free throws by Clark and four straight charity tosses from Boston forced an Atlanta timeout with 2:10 left in the quarter and its 16-point lead trimmed to 64-59.

Howard — who finished with a game-high 36 points — responded with a three-point play out of the timeout for the Dream. But Boston answered on a feed from Clark before Clark drilled a 3-pointer of her own to pull the Fever within three, which is where things stood after the third quarter.

The Dream's 18-4 run was answered by an 18-5 Fever burst.

Clark opened the fourth with a 3-point basket to tie the game at 69-69, the first tie since 42-42 in the second quarter, but it was the Dream's turn to go on a scoring run.

Two Canada free throws started a 15-6 Dream run, capped on a rebound basket by Alisha Gray, and they had the Fever back on their heels with an 84-75 lead.

But the Fever closed regulation with a 15-6 scoring run — tying the game on three occasions — before Boston scored on one of Clark's 12 assists with six seconds left to force overtime.

Clark became the first player in WNBA history to record 650 points, 300 assists and 200 rebounds in a single season.

And it was Clark who gave Indiana its first lead since 40-39 when she opened the extra session with a wing jumper for a 92-90 advantage.

From there, overtime became a back-and-forth affair, with neither team able to grab a two-possession lead until Clark hit a pair of free throws with 23.9 seconds remaining for a 102-98 lead. Canada then scored for Atlanta, but again, Clark hit two more freebies to seal the game in the closing seconds.

It was a vast improvement from what Fever fans saw Friday in an 11-point loss to Minnesota.

"I think you saw a different team out there," Sides said. "There were a lot of moments where they could have gotten angry, let little things bother them — some calls or no-calls — but they did a much better job of not getting too upset. They had that next-play mentality."

"Right now, we're in a space where we have to make sure we're keeping our foot on the gas," Boston said. "We know that we're very capable of beating any single team because of the pace we play at. I'm really proud of us today because we were down 16, but we didn't let that stop us."

Boston finished with a team-high 30 points and 13 rebounds while Clark scored 26 to complete her double-double. Indiana also got 21 points from Mitchell and 12 from Lexie Hull while Temi Fagbenle chipped in nine points, four rebounds and two blocks in 28 minutes off the Fever bench.

"Not our prettiest, but we got it done," Clark said. "I felt like one turnover turned into two turnovers, and that was a problem for us. Sometimes it would play right into their hands."

Charles and Canada each scored 17 points for the Dream while Gray added 15 points. Charles also grabbed 12 rebounds.

Sites believes her team needs to clean up the mistakes and play stronger defense from the outset, rather than waiting until late. Allowing 26 more field goal attempts than they attempt — as they did against Atlanta — will not be tenable against a much stronger team in the postseason.

"Defensively, you can't just keep give people confidence and let them take shots they like to take," Sides said. "That's where we keep getting that one-percent better."

The Fever will host the two-time defending champion Las Vegas Aces (22-13) on Wednesday and Friday before closing out the current six-game homestand Sunday against Dallas and traveling to Washington on Sept. 19 for the regular-season finale.

Contact Rob Hunt at [email protected] or 765-640-4886.