Veronica Burton Strikes Indiana Fever For 5th Time As Playoffs Hopes Sink Without Caitlin Clark

Veronica Burton has never needed a cape to play the villain in Indiana’s story. Waived by Dallas in May 2024, left on the curb for a stretch, revived with Connecticut in June. “But, at the end of the day, that’s kind of a part of this league,” Burton said when she joined the Sun. Soon, the league’s nature repeated, and the shiny new expansion franchise scooped up Veronica Burton that same December. She has had a career arc that plays like a soap opera. And yet, through every plot twist, one storyline never changes: when it’s Indiana across from her, Burton… stomps. Here’s the proof-

That’s a five-game win streak against the Fever. When she wore Sun colors, her averages were modest (3.1 points in the regular season, 4.9 in the postseason). Yet against Indiana, those numbers always seemed to bend, and her last two games with Connecticut told the tale best. Then came the time to suit up for Golden State. On June 20th, Veronica Burton was flawless from the line, as she went 6-for-6 with a perfect 100% free-throw mark. By July 9th, she had exploded for 21 points (her third 20+ performance of the year). That game ended in an 80-61 demolition of Indiana. Tonight, she added eight more to the pile, as the Valkyries completed the sweep.

For Indiana, the sting cut deeper as the Fever stumbled to the 8th seed; their postseason grip is now suddenly fragile. Golden State not only claimed all three games of the regular-season series, but also pocketed the head-to-head tiebreaker. At 21-19, Indiana is now trailing Seattle (22-19, 6th) and Golden State (21-18, 7th), while still clinging to a two-game cushion over 9th-place Los Angeles. It’s a cushion complicated by the Sparks’ tiebreaker edge.

The road ahead offers no comfort to them either. Phoenix awaits on Tuesday, with the season series split 1-1. A familiar foe in Chicago follows that Indiana has managed to beat four times. All of it before closing with the already eliminated Washington and Minnesota, already been crowned the league’s top seed. The Fever’s margin is slim, their path narrow, and somewhere in Golden State, Veronica Burton is still smiling.

But if Burton was smiling, it wasn’t only because of her own stat line; the game itself unfolded in a bizarre way. Shot-clock malfunctions turned the first half into an endurance test for everyone present in the arena. What should have been 20 minutes of basketball stretched to a grueling 92. That is nearly the length of a full WNBA game. Five separate clock stoppages, four timeouts, and four reviews (two by referees, two challenges) later, the endless opening half came to a conclusion that wasn’t in Indy’s favour.

The problems started from Indiana’s very first possession, when the clock failed to reset. A five-minute pause followed, and barely a minute of game time later, another malfunction sparked a 20-minute delay so long that players retreated to the locker rooms. Yet while the timing sputtered, Golden State’s shooting never even slightly did.

Indiana’s zone defense proved to be paper-thin as the Valkyries ripped through it with catch-and-shoot precision. By the end of the first quarter, they had already hit seven of eight threes. Their rhythm stayed absolutely undisturbed by the stop-and-go nature of the contest. The barrage never slowed, and finally Golden State finished 12-of-19 from beyond the arc. They shot over 50% overall from the field. Indiana, by contrast, managed just six threes on 20% shooting, and limped to 32% from the floor.

So while the clocks betrayed the Fever, the Valkyries stayed ruthlessly effective…

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