There was only one moment in the Sky’s game Tuesday against the Fever in Indianapolis that their urgency came into question.
It came when they gave up an offensive rebound to Fever star Aliyah Boston, who was able to kick it out to a wide-open Kelsey Mitchell for a 17-foot jumper in the first minute.
The Sky needed to answer one question from there: Would they allow the Fever to control the tone in a game with playoff implications, or would they respond?
The Sky quickly showed it would be the latter, scoring 11 consecutive points. They were relentless the rest of the way, shooting 49.4% from the field and 43.8% from three-point range en route to a 96-69 rout.
‘‘[Our defense] really set the tone,’’ guard Courtney Williams said. ‘‘I was just telling [forward Elizabeth Williams] in the locker room that her fronting Aliyah Boston and us being on the backside — they threw it over the top a couple of times, and we got deflections — we made them second-guess that pass.’’
Elizabeth Williams scored only two points, but her defense against Boston was the key to holding the Rookie of the Year front-runner to six points and 2-for-5 shooting from the field. Elizabeth Williams added five rebounds, three assists, two blocks and two steals.
As a team, the Sky outrebounded the Fever 35-31 and gave up only six second-chance points.
‘‘For [Boston] to only get five shots in this game was a testament to our bigs and our help-side defense,’’ Courtney Williams said.
Offensively, the Sky ran like a well-oiled machine. They finished with 25 assists on 38 field goals and gave up only eight points off eight turnovers.
‘‘I think the numbers speak for themselves,’’ interim coach/general manager Emre Vatansever said.
Kahleah Copper scored a game-high 25 points, shooting 9-for-13 from the field. Courtney Williams and Marina Mabrey added 17 points apiece.
Mabrey went 1-for-5 from three-point range, but her lone make was her 80th of the season, tying her with Allie Quigley for the most by a Sky player in a season. Quigley finished with 80 threes in 2019.
‘‘Credit to my teammates,’’ Mabrey said. ‘‘They find me in great spots. Allie Quigley is a player I’ve watched for a really long time. I’ll always say, ‘How can anyone shoot like her?’ To even tie that is great. I’m happy I could do that and maybe take it a little bit further this season and in the playoffs.’’
While the Sky were handing the Fever their worst loss of the season, the depleted Sparks — who added forward Nneka Ogwumike (knee) to their injury report — were getting beaten by the Sun 90-76.
The results moved the Sky back into the eighth and final playoff spot — thanks to the tiebreaker against the Sparks — with two games left in the regular season. The Sparks will finish their season on the road against the Liberty on Thursday and the Storm on Sunday. The Sky have a home game Friday against the Lynx before finishing on the road Sunday against the Sun.
The Sky’s most important victory of the season might end up being the one they narrowly escaped with last week against the Sparks. That 76-75 triumph was their third victory against the Sparks in four games this season, giving them the tiebreaker.
‘‘It’s do-or-die for us,’’ Courtney Williams said. ‘‘Every game counts for us at this point. Every game, we have to step up and rise to the occasion. If we don’t, we leave it in other people’s hands, and that’s not what we want to do.’’
