From 1-8 to the WNBA playoffs: How Caitlin Clark, Fever overcame early growing pains

The Indiana Fever beat the Dallas Wings 110 -109 on Sunday night .

The WNBA franchise is back in the playoffs for the first time since 2016 .

The Fever will face the 3 -seed Connecticut Sun in a best-of-three, first -round WNBA playoff series.

Coach Christie Sides : "The character of people that we have in that locker room, they just weren't going to let that happen".

Caitlin Clark's competitive fire was on full display both when things were going right and when things weren't.

The team maintained perspective on the difficulty of its early-season slate plus the cadence of games.

Coach Christie Sides : "It could have gone sideways real quick at 1-8 . The character of people that we have in that locker room, they just weren't going to let that happen".

The Indiana Fever are a "goofy" team that likes to be light and have fun, but is still made up of competitors.

The team that went 1-8 in May is a shell of the group that's entering the postseason now.

The Fever 's offensive efficiency in May was a paltry 96.6 points per 100 possessions, second worst in the WNBA.