INDIANPOLY – Indiana Fever coach Christie Sides slept through her team’s historic playoff-deciding moment Tuesday night. Rookie guard Caitlin Clark watched the deciding game and then went to bed.

For the WNBA’s most popular team, ending a seven-year playoff drought on a night it didn’t play seemed a little unceremonious.

On Wednesday morning, the Fever’s world changed. The team that had endured seven consecutive losing seasons, had won just 30 games in the previous four years and started this season 1-8, was the toast of Indianapolis.

“I usually go to bed at 9:30, 10:00, but I set my alarm for midnight to wake up and I just turned it off. I didn’t even look at it,” Sides said. “So this morning I woke up to some really great texts.”

The losses to Chicago and Atlanta gave the Fever their first postseason berth since Tamika Catchings retired in 2016. However, the teams wanted just one of those teams to win, allowing the Fever to win the game on their home court in front of a nearly sold-out stadium.

Still, no one was really angry.

During pregame warmups on Wednesday, smiles were bright on everyone’s faces: Clark, the former Iowa star who has taken women’s basketball to new heights; Kelsey Mitchell, the seven-year veteran finally getting her first taste of playoff basketball; and especially Sides, who was named WNBA coach of the month on Wednesday, a first for the Fever.

While that was the goal from the moment Indiana drafted Clark first, it was never an easy task.

“Sure, cool,” Clark said, who won the competition’s monthly honorary titles for player and rookie of the month. “It doesn’t even have to come down to the last minute for us, and I think that’s special. You can just relax and play basketball and have a lot of fun. Yeah, we’ve accomplished that, but there’s so much more at stake.”

Clark isn’t the only one who realizes what’s possible.

Guard Erica Wheeler appeared in four playoff games during her first two WNBA seasons and it took her eight more to return. It’s been so long that the playoff format has changed, and so has her role — she plays behind Clark.

But as one of four Fever players with postseason experience, she can offer an important perspective.

“The job’s not done yet,” Wheeler said. “We’ve got six, seven games left and we can’t think ahead that much. As a veteran, I know that for sure. So for me, it’s not time to think about the playoffs yet. You’ve got seven games left.”

Just three months ago, it seemed unlikely that the play-offs would go ahead.

A brutal early schedule, combined with Clark starting her pro career just five weeks after completing a 39-game college schedule, contributed to Indiana’s early woes. The Olympic break gave Clark a much-needed breather and a young team time to figure out how to get along.

Since June 1, Indiana is 16-8 with wins over each of the league’s top three teams — New York, Minnesota and Connecticut — along with a three-game season-high win over Phoenix, while ending its longest consecutive losing streak at 189.

“We were able to keep it together and they focused on the things we kept talking about — creating good habits, relentless effort, camaraderie and toughness,” Sides said. “We focused on those things and that’s what mattered.”

The fact that Clark was there wasn’t a bad idea either.

Clark remains the competition’s headliner, regularly drawing sellout crowds and large national television audiences. Business Insider recently reported that secondary market ticket prices nearly doubled this year compared to last year — before the Olympic break.

Indiana also leads the league in home, away and overall attendance, and the Fever have appeared in each of the 13 highest-rated broadcasts this year. It’s easy to imagine a big audience if Clark were to face record-breaking rookie Angel Reese of Chicago, established stars Diana Taurasi and Brittney Griner of Phoenix or Sabrina Ionescu and Breanna Stewart of New York in a playoff series.

Indiana entered Wednesday’s regular season with a league-best 8-2 record in its last 10 games. And with five more home games and a season finale in Washington, the Fever could give the WNBA’s top teams some restless nights.

“It’s definitely a big moment for this place, but at the same time, I came in expecting this to happen,” Clark said. “For me, this is not a celebration. It’s great, I feel like it’s a great accomplishment, but there’s a lot more to come. Yes, we made the playoffs, but I’m not just happy to be in the playoffs. I think we have the kind of team that can and will continue to do it one game at a time.”

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AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball