The Indiana Fever defeated the Dallas Wings 98-87 on Friday night, in a game that included a lot of star power performing to their potential.

Fever guard Caitlin Clark shined the brightest, finishing with 29 points and adding 10 assists. But Wings star guard Paige Bueckers also produced a great game, scoring 29 points and tallying six assists and six rebounds.

The biggest difference in the game came when the Fever outscored the Wings 35-21 in the fourth quarter, which cemented their victory. And Indiana only held Bueckers to two field goal attempts and four points in that final frame.

Clark spoke with the media postgame and spoke about her team's late defensive effort against Bueckers.

"I thought our defense in the fourth quarter was really good. I think we only held Paige to two field goal attempts, so credit to our group," Clark said, per Tony East.

She was later asked directly about going back and forth with Bueckers during the game and said, "Obviously, she's an incredible player. [She] makes it really hard on us defensively. We tried to throw a lot of different things at her; she's so good in the mid-range. I felt like we had a few miscommunications... but, you know, Paige is a tremendous player. She takes what the defense gives her; she doesn't force anything; she's smooth; she finds the open teammate. So she's just a really tough guard.

"I thought Kelsey did a really good job on her, and then everybody else that saw her... people just stepped up to the challenge. And you know, that's kind of what you got to do with really good players, is you got to throw a lot of different things at them. They're going to make tough shots, and you live with some of them. And then I thought, like I said, in the fourth quarter, we did a tremendous job of taking her out of things," Clark continued.

Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers' Head to Head WNBA History

This was the third game where Clark and Bueckers (who are often viewed as rivals) matched up against each other in the WNBA, and Clark is now 2-1 against Bueckers.

These two teams played each other in the 2026 regular season opener, and Dallas secured the 107-104 win. Clark and Bueckers both had 20 points in that game.

Since Clark missed much of the 2025 campaign, she and Bueckers only matched up one time. It was a 102-83 win for the Wings, a game in which Clark had 14 points, 13 assists, and 5 steals, while Bueckers tallied 21 points.

These two superstars will face each other for a fourth time in the WNBA on August 20.