No Caitlin Clark, no matter. Fever win, were trending anyway

• The Fever fan base has another reason to love its team, and the anti-Fever contingent found another reason to complain. Her name: Sophie Cunningham. She was trending nationally during her Fever debut.
• Cunningham scored a game-high 21 points Saturday against the Mystics, and was thrown to the court by two different Mystics players in the second quarter as fans online loved it … or hated it.
• The Fever beat the Mystics 79-74 in overtime with Caitlin Clark (leg) in street clothes. New players DeWanna Bonner, Natasha Howard and Cunningham combined for 41 points and 20 rebounds.

INDIANAPOLIS – Mystics rookie Kiki Iriafen threw Fever veteran Sophie Cunningham to the ground, and then Brittney Sykes shoved Cunningham to the ground. It was only the first half of the first preseason game for the 2025 Indiana Fever, but you had to wonder: Could the noise around our city’s WNBA franchise, which reached a fever pitch last season, get even more … feverish?