INDIANAPOLIS — Mark your calendars: the Indiana Fever‘s 2025 schedule was released Monday afternoon.
The Fever open the season May 17 against Chicago, marking the first of five meetings with the Sky. The schedule also includes a five-game homestand in July, three West Coast road trips and their first game against the expansion Golden State Valkyries on June 19.
For the first time, all WNBA teams will play 44 regular-season games — up from 40 in 2024.
More: Before Caitlin Clark, Stephanie White wore No. 22 and sold out gyms
With Caitlin Clark’s record-breaking season, the Fever went 20-20 last season, leading to their first playoff berth since 2016.
Indiana also hired a new coach for 2025 in Stephanie White, an Indiana native with ample experience in the league.
Here are some takeaways from the Fever’s schedule
Opening the season with a rivalry
Who doesn’t love a good rivalry? Indiana is opening the season against the Chicago Sky on May 17. Chicago is not only the closest team geographically to Indiana, but the matchup that generated the most interest and headlines throughout the 2024 season.
That interest came with fans wanting to watch Caitlin Clark, the Fever’s No. 1 pick, and Angel Reese, the Sky’s No. 7 pick, going up against each other in the pros.
Reese was Clark’s closest competition for Rookie of the Year in 2024 — Clark garnered 67 of 68 votes for the award, while Reese got the other one. Reese set her fair share of records in her first season, including a WNBA-record 15 consecutive double-doubles and league-best 13.1 rebounds per game.
The Sky is the only team the Fever will play five times during the regular season: May 17, Aug. 9, and Sept. 5 in Indianapolis, June 7 and July 26 in Chicago.
Sign up for our Fever newsletter to stay plugged in
Going up against the next No. 1 pick
The 2025 No. 1 pick, which will likely be UConn star Paige Bueckers, is going to Dallas. The point guard has been regarded as a potential franchise-changing pick, similar to how Clark changed Indiana in just her first season.
Bueckers is an efficient and versatile player. She has shot over 50% in her five years at UConn and reached 1,000 points in just 55 games played, matching Maya Moore’s UConn record. She became the first freshman to win National Player of the Year in 2021, but her time at UConn has been slightly hampered by injuries — she missed half of her sophomore season with a knee injury and her entire junior season with an ACL tear, so she decided to take a fifth year in 2024-25.
It will be especially interesting how Clark and Bueckers, both point guards, match up against each other in the pros. The two played each other three times during their college careers: Bueckers and the Huskies came out on top in the Sweet 16 matchup in their freshman season in 2021 and in the Phil Knight Tournament in Portland in 2022, while Clark and the Hawkeyes won in the Final Four during her senior season in 2024.
The Fever and Wings will play four times in 2025: June 27 and Aug. 1 in Dallas, and July 13 and Aug. 12 in Indianapolis.
Taking on Stephanie White’s former team at TD Garden
There are a lot of layers within the four times Indiana plays Connecticut in 2025. Indiana went 1-3 against the Sun in the regular season, and Connecticut was the team Indiana played in the Fever’s first berth into the playoffs since 2016. The Sun swept the Fever in two games, with both of them being played in Connecticut.
After the season, Indiana poached Connecticut’s coach, Stephanie White. White still had one year left on her contract with Connecticut, but decided to make the move to be closer to family in West Lebanon, Ind.,and Nashville. White also brought (at least) one of her assistants, Austin Kelly, with her to Indianapolis.
White brought the Sun to the playoff semifinals both seasons she was in Connecticut, and she is an established, successful coach. She got her first head coaching job with Indiana in 2015, leading the Fever to the WNBA Finals in her first season.
Now, the Sun are searching for a new coach — one that may not have as good of a track record as White. Connecticut also has a lot of free agents that could potentially leave the franchise, leaving the door open for a rebuild after two successful years with White.
Indiana will host Connecticut on May 30 and June 17, and head east on July 15 and Aug. 17. The game in July has already been moved to TD Garden, the home of the Boston Celtics, with nearly double the capacity of Mohegan Sun Arena.
Can Fever compete in WNBA Commissioner’s Cup?
The Fever have not necessarily been a threat in the Commissioner’s Cup, the WNBA’s in-season tournament, since its inception in 2021. That could change this year.
The Commissioner’s Cup works by each team playing its conference opponents one time (six teams in the East, seven in the West with Golden State joining) over a two-week period from June 1-17. The team with the best winning percentage in each conference will play a championship game on July 1.
Indiana went 3-2 in Commissioner’s Cup play last season, posting wins against Atlanta, Washington and Chicago and losses to New York and Connecticut. New York represented the Eastern Conference in the Commissioner’s Cup championship. The 2024 season was Indiana’s most competitive Commissioner’s Cup season yet, as the Fever went 2-8 in Cup games between 2021-23.
The biggest barrier is the reigning champion New York, which beat Indiana three times last season. But Indiana, with the little experience it had in 2024, eked out a win over New York once last year — it could do so again.
INDIANA FEVER 2025 SCHEDULE
Saturday, May 17: Chicago at Fever
Tuesday, May 20: Atlanta at Fever
Thursday, May 22: Fever at Atlanta
Saturday, May 24: New York at Fever
Wednesday, May 28: Fever at Washington
Friday, May 30: Connecticut at Fever
Tuesday, June 3: Washington at Fever*
Saturday, June 7: Fever at Chicago*
Tuesday, June 10: Fever at Atlanta*
Saturday, June 14: New York at Fever*
Tuesday, June 17: Connecticut at Fever*
Thursday, June 19: Fever at Golden State
Sunday, June 22: Fever at Las Vegas
Tuesday, June 24: Fever at Seattle
Thursday, June 26: Los Angeles at Fever
Friday, June 27: Fever at Dallas
Thursday, July 3: Las Vegas at Fever
Saturday, July 5: Los Angeles at Fever
Wednesday, July 9: Golden State at Fever
Friday, July 11: Atlanta at Fever
Sunday, July 13: Dallas at Fever
Tuesday, July 15: Fever at Connecticut
Wednesday, July 16: Fever at New York
July 18-19: WNBA All-Star Game in Indianapolis
Tuesday July 22: Fever at New York
Thursday, July 24: Las Vegas at Fever
Saturday, July 26: Fever at Chicago
Wednesday, July 30: Phoenix at Fever
Friday, Aug. 1: Fever at Dallas
Sunday, Aug. 3: Fever at Seattle
Tuesday, Aug. 5: Fever at Los Angeles
Thursday, Aug. 7: Fever at Phoenix
Saturday Aug. 9: Chicago at Fever
Tuesday, Aug. 12: Dallas at Fever
Friday, Aug. 15: Washington at Fever
Sunday, Aug. 17: Fever at Connecticut
Friday, Aug. 22: Minnesota at Fever
Sunday, Aug. 24: Fever at Minnesota
Tuesday, Aug. 26: Seattle at Fever
Friday, Aug. 29: Fever at Los Angeles
Sunday, Aug. 31: Fever at Golden State
Tuesday, Sep. 2: Fever at Phoenix
Friday, Sep. 5: Chicago at Fever
Sun, Sep. 7: Fever at Washington
Tuesday, Sep. 9: Minnesota at Fever
*-Commissioner’s Cup
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana Fever 2025 schedule includes 5 games vs Chicago Sky
