Caitlin Clark’s Return Has Indiana Fever in Prime WNBA Commissioner’s Cup Position

The Commissioner’s Cup is an annual in-season tournament––played between June 1-17 this season––where teams compete against each other within their respective conferences (playing every intra-conference team once) with the squad that achieves the best mark advancing to the championship game. The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is a $500,000 prize pool. On top of that, there is $120,000 in cryptocurrency in the prize pool, which includes $5,000 for each player in the championship game. 

While Indiana’s victory over New York currently has the Fever sitting at the top of the Cup standings, the path to the half a million dollar purse isn’t decided just yet. The Fever have one game left to play in the tournament against the Connecticut Sun, so they would have to snatch that. 

But the Atlanta Dream are on their heels. They have two games to play––first against the Liberty, and then the Washington Mystics––and they must win them both. It’s safe to assume that after New York’s first loss of the season, they will be heading into their next matchup––against the Dream––with something to prove, so that could be a daunting task for the Dream. 

The Liberty have the same 3-1 record in the Commissioner’s Cup as the Fever, but Indiana holds the head-to-head tiebreaker. A Fever loss to the Sun would be an upset for the Fever, and a Liberty loss to the Dream would also be an upset, so it appears that Indiana is the frontrunner in the Eastern Conference to head to the tournament’s championship game July 1.

That final showdown on July 1 will pit them against the top Western Conference team—likely the Minnesota Lynx or Seattle Storm, so all eyes will be on the Fever matchup with Connecticut—if they seal it, they’ll be heading to the final. Thus setting up a possible showdown between the MVP frontrunners in Clark and Napheesa Collier to decide the cup.