Free Indiana Fever vs. Phoenix Mercury live stream (8/16/24): How to watch Caitlin Clark, WNBA online

Caitlin Clark and the 11-15 Indiana Fever will host the Phoenix Mercury on Friday, August 16 (08/16/2024), in a WNBA duel at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

How to watch: Stream the WNBA on DirecTV Stream (Free Trial).

What you need to know:

What: WNBA regular season game

WHO: Mercury @ Fever

When: Friday, August 16, 2024

Time: 7:30 p.m. EDT

Where: Gainbridge Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, Indiana

TV: ION

Station finder: Verizon Fios, Xfinity, Spectrum, Optimum/Altice, Cox, DirecTV

Live stream: fuboTV (free trial), DirecTV Stream (free trial)

Here is a recent basketball story from AP:

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Caitlin Clark has taken full advantage of her rejection by the U.S. Olympic team.

She visited Mexico, attended a friend’s wedding in Iowa and even got to see the New York Yankees’ locker room. When the Indiana Fever star returned to practice on Tuesday, she was rested, refreshed and ready to restart the WNBA season.

For Clark and the rest of this year’s remarkable rookie class, the nearly month-long Olympic break was a welcome and perhaps necessary rest before the final sprint to the playoffs.

“Oh yeah, I think it was really helpful just to get some rest,” Clark said. “When I came here, I didn’t know my teammates very well and you’re just thrown out on the court and trying to figure each other out. I think you can tell I was more comfortable the last couple of games before the break, so I was like, ‘Oh, I need the break.'”

Clark was hardly alone in her assessment.

In Chicago, coach Teresa Weatherspoon credited her two rookie stars – LSU’s Angel Reese and South Carolina’s Kamilla Cardoso, both NCAA champions – with returning with renewed energy after enduring nearly a year of unprecedented turmoil.

From the start of college practices last fall, these freshmen played under a glare rarely seen in women’s basketball: sold-out stadiums every night, skyrocketing ticket prices on the secondary market, record-breaking television ratings and their own incessant desire to live up to rising expectations.

“When you talk about these two, especially coming out of college, they’re at it all year long and the body needs a break,” Weatherspoon said. “You want the body to have that break to stay productive.”

With only eight days between the NCAA championship game and the WNBA Draft and two weeks until training camp began, the fast pace continued in her professional career.

Fans debated what long-term impact these women could have on the sport, while salaries, endorsement deals, charter flights and yes, even Olympic nominations continued to fuel interest in the sport.

In mid-May, the rookies began a 40-game regular season – a season made even more challenging by the changed and compressed schedule due to the long break.

“I think we’re all mentally refreshed,” said Reese, who went shopping in Paris during the break. “We needed this little break because we were playing back-to-back games and traveling together for a very long time. I even tell my teammates that I was lucky with this Olympic year and they spoiled us because now I look forward to it every year.”

Don’t bet on that. If there is another break in 2028, Clark and Reese could form the core of the US team in Los Angeles, while Cardoso hopes to represent Brazil.

However, this does not change the fact that this trio benefited this time.

Cardoso, who missed the Sky’s first six games with a shoulder injury, was given a little more time to recover. Reese and her teammates also recovered.

Meanwhile, Clark used the time off from training to socialize with his teammates. They held a “Home Run Derby”, participated in a high ropes course in Indianapolis and braved the hottest temperatures of the summer to visit the Indiana State Fair.

Now it’s time to get back to basketball.

“We definitely need a game,” Fever coach Christy Sides said after organizing a match between her players and the men who train against them. “It’s time for a competition. It’s been a long time.”

Indiana and Chicago begin their final stretch with the last two spots in the league’s eight-team playoff round.

The Fever have 14 games left on their schedule, starting with home games against Phoenix and Seattle, two teams whose ranks include four players returning from their Olympic break with gold medals: Diana Taurasi, Brittney Griner, Kahleah Copper and Jewell Lloyd.

The Sky have 16 games left, starting Thursday night at home against Phoenix, followed by a three-game trip to Los Angeles, Phoenix and Connecticut.

Now the race for a place in the playoffs counts.

“I’ve been ready to get going and play games for a while now,” Clark said. “I think we’re all kind of ready. We’re getting each other ready, getting the guys ready and I think we want to go out there and feel like we’re ready to play more games. I think this preparation has been really good, but at some point you get to the point where you say, ‘OK, here we go.'”