Indiana Fever Lexie Hull (10) celebrates a 3-pointer Saturday, May 3, 2025, during a preseason game between the Indiana Fever and the Washington Mystics at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. The Indiana Fever defeated the Washington Mystics in overtime, 79-74. / Grace Smith/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Two of the Indiana Fever's four WNBA regular season games to this point have been against the Atlanta Dream, with the two teams facing off twice in the past week and splitting the games 1-1.
The old saying is that familiarity breeds contempt. And things began getting chippy between Indiana and Atlanta during their May 22 contest; particularly between Fever superstar guard Caitlin Clark and Dream star guard Rhyne Howard (who was drafted No. 1 overall in the 2022 WNBA Draft).
During the final possession of the first quarter in that game, Howard was playing tight, physical defense on Clark that led to a foul. Clark seemed to take exception to the defense, as the two began exchanging words before they were separated by teammates.
Of course, these things happen in competitive games at the highest level, and there's no reason to believe there's real bad blood between Clark and Howard. There's definitely no bad blood between Howard and Fever standout Lexie Hull, despite Howard teasing her with an Instagram post she made on May 25.
The post is a photo montage of Howard playing in several games this season. The final photo is of her dribbling with Hull in the background, either stumbling or in the process of getting up from falling. Hull is tagged in the photo, and Howard wrote in the caption, "Ft. Lexie’s new defensive tactic ðŸ~'".
This prompted two comments from Hull; one being, "it’s a good one I must say".
Clearly Hull isn't too hurt about being tagged and included in this montage, despite the tough stance.