Fever star Kelsey Mitchell breaks A'ja Wilson's WNBA single-season scoring record
The Fever offense has been absurd this year, with Mitchell the leading scorer.
With the WNBA expanding its regular-season schedule to 44 games in 2025 and 2026 , records were bound to be broken. Kelsey Mitchell obliged on Friday.
The Indiana Fever star scored 33 points in a 103-85 win over the Toronto Tempo on Friday , upping her season total to 1,034. That broke the WNBA single-season scoring record set by A'ja Wilson in 2024 (1,021 points when teams played only 40 games).
Mitchell and Caitlin Clark have combined to produce the most lethal offense in WNBA history this season, with the Fever's current mark of 97.1 points per game on pace to shatter the record currently held by the 2010 Phoenix Mercury at 93.9 points per game.
The pair are all over the WNBA's leaderboard. In addition to Mitchell leading the league in total points, Clark ranks third with 837 (with 28 Friday). Clark also ranks second in total assists and is the league leader in assists per game, while Mitchell leads the pack in field goals and 3-point shooting percentage.
Mitchell is also one 3-pointer behind Rhyne Howard , who broke the single-season mark Thursday .
Does the WNBA's schedule expansion water down those achievements? Perhaps to some, but this is common ground in sports history, going back to arguments over whether Roger Maris' record of 61 homers should have come with an asterisk because he did it in 162 games while Babe Ruth's previous record of 60 was done in a 154-game season.
No one bothers denigrating baseball records now because of that schedule shift. It is simply all part of a league's growing pains, as circumstances change and certain numbers become more accessible to athletes.
And with WNBA teams set to play 50 games starting next year, Mitchell's record might not last for long. She might not even have the record at the end of the season.
A'ja Wilson could theoretically reclaim record
Mitchell might have the most points this season, but Wilson is the current leader in points per game. She's just played three fewer games than Mitchell.
Wilson currently sits at 991 points, 43 behind Mitchell. Both players have three games remaining in the regular season and something to play for with WNBA playoff seeding still being decided. Wilson's Las Vegas Aces are currently third in the league at 28-13, but only one game ahead of the Fever and Atlanta Dream .
The Aces' final three games are against the Seattle Storm , Los Angeles Sparks and Phoenix Mercury, three teams that rank no better than eighth in points allowed per game, while the Fever play the Minnesota Lynx twice and the Washington Mystics , who are both in the top three in points allowed per game.
You should probably give the advantage to the player with the 43-point cushion, but it would be inaccurate to say this record is settled. At the very least, Mitchell has some runway to add to an already historic season.
Topics in this story
Gathered from external sources. Rights to this text belong to whoever originally published it.