TORONTO (AP) — Indiana Fever guard Kelsey Mitchell sat out the fourth quarter of Tuesday night’s 101-95 win at Toronto because she was overheated, coach Stephanie White said.
The WNBA's second-leading scorer, Mitchell had eight points in the span of less than a minute late in the third quarter to reach 29 points for the game. She then went to the locker room and did not return to the floor at steamy Scotiabank Arena.
“This is two games in a row where we played in really, really hot environments,” White said. “All indications are right now that she was just overheated.”
Mitchell scored 20 points in 36 minutes on Sunday as the Fever needed overtime to win 95-91 at Atlanta.
Last October, Mitchell was sent to a hospital to receive fluids after going to the floor with leg cramps in the third quarter of a 107-98 overtime loss to Las Vegas in the decisive Game 5 of the WNBA semifinal series.
White said she wasn’t aware of any link between Tuesday’s incident and last year's.
Mitchell scored 16 points in the first quarter against the Tempo. She scored at least 20 points for the 20th consecutive game, matching Las Vegas’ A’ja Wilson for the longest such streak in WNBA history.
“She just can get a shot at any time,” White said. “She gets a shot for herself, her gravity creates shots for everybody else. It’s nice to know that you can give her the ball and let her go to work. There aren’t a lot of players that can just create the kinds of shots that she does.”
Mitchell shot 11 for 16 Tuesday and made 4 of 6 from 3-point range. She was 3 for 3 at the free-throw line.
Mitchell came in averaging a career-high 24.2 points per game. Wilson leads the WNBA in scoring at 26.1 points.
Caitlin Clark added 24 points Tuesday in her first visit to Canada as a player as the Fever won their fifth straight and 10th of 12.
Clark and Mitchell have each scored 20 or more in the same game 16 times this season, a WNBA record. Diana Taurasi and Cappie Pondexter did it 15 times with Phoenix in 2008.
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