How Fever guard Kelsey Mitchell is putting together one of the greatest scoring seasons in WNBA history

Kelsey Mitchell has been busy this summer. 

The four-time All-Star, who already has degrees from Ohio State and Cincinnati, has been working on her Ph.D in educational leadership at Liberty University. On the court, she's been schooling her opponents. 

"We'll be in there literally 90 minutes till tip and Kelsey's literally on her laptop typing a paper," Caitlin Clark said during All-Star Weekend. "And then she goes and drops 30… I've never seen anything like it. It's incredible."

After averaging 20.2 points in 2025 while leading the Fever to a deciding Game 5 of the semifinals without Clark and earning her first All-WNBA First Team appearance, Mitchell has been even better this season: 24.8 points per game on hyper-efficient 51/45.5/85.4 shooting splits. A'ja Wilson's own historic season will likely keep Mitchell from winning the scoring title, but Mitchell has surpassed Wilson for the longest 20-point scoring streak in league history. Her 23-game streak remains active.  

"I think it's about flow. I've been telling y'all about this flow state thing all season, but it really holds true for me," Mitchell said in Chicago after her 30-point outing against the Sky. "I want to find my spots and be able to be effective. So sometimes it may look a little different, but always want to stay steady and stay ready."

Thanks in large part to Mitchell, the Fever have already set a franchise record for wins in a season with 25, and remain in the hunt for a top-three seed. Ahead of Friday's matchup with the Connecticut Sun, the Fever's last game before the World Cup break, let's take a closer look at how Mitchell has put together one of the best scoring seasons of all time. 

The numbers

Scoring average

Mitchell's 24.8 points per game would be the fourth-highest single-season scoring average in league history. Only Wilson, who will likely win her fifth MVP this season, and Diana Taurasi, the league's all-time leading scorer, have ever averaged more points in a season. 

Mitchell would need to average more than 30 points over the Fever's remaining five games to move in front of Taurasi, which is unlikely, but joining the 25-points-per-game club is realistic. To do so, Mitchell needs to average 26.6 points the rest of the way. 

WNBA seasons are much longer now than they were for the majority of the league's history, which means Mitchell already has the second-highest single-season points total in league history. Her 967 points are second only to Wilson's 1,021 in 2024. 

Efficiency

Mitchell is putting up huge scoring numbers, but she's not out there chucking. Her 26.7% usage rate is 10th in the league, behind the likes of Gabby Williams and Sydney Taylor. She's shooting 51% from the field overall, including 45.5% from 3-point range. Her 85.4% mark from the free throw line is the only thing keeping her from joining the exclusive 50/40/90 club. Even though Mitchell will fall short of that achievement, her efficiency has been remarkable. 

Here are a few notes on that front:

• Mitchell's 1.165 points per possession ranks fourth in the league
• Mitchell is one of two players in the league this season averaging at least 20 points and shooting better than 50%
• Mitchell leads the league in 3-point percentage at 45.5%
• Mitchell's 45.5% mark from 3-point range would be the highest ever by a 20-point scorer
• Mitchell's 64.1 true shooting percentage ranks third among the 65 players with at least 250 field goal attempts
• Mitchell's 64.1 true shooting percentage is 8.1% better than the league average
• Mitchell's 64.1 true shooting percentage would be the third-highest ever by a 20-point scorer

"You can just give the ball to her and let her go. You know she's gonna make a play," Fever coach Stephanie White said in Chicago. "The consistency with how much she's scoring, but more so the efficiency and how she's doing it. She's not taking bad shots. She's getting to her spots, she's shooting it at a high clip, so you feel really good about putting her in positions where she can make plays. When you got somebody that you can count on to do that, it makes your job as a coach a lot easier."

This chart from Automatic NBA does a great job laying out Mitchell's absurd efficiency relative to other high-volume scoring seasons:

Consistency

Mitchell has scored at least 20 points in 23 consecutive games, which is the longest such streak in WNBA history, not that she cares. "I don't really take statistics that serious, so a lot of this stuff is circumstantial to me," Mitchell said earlier this month after surpassing Wilson for the all-time record. 

That Mitchell has accomplished her streak in a single season only makes it more impressive. 

Mitchell's consistency "takes the pressure off me a lot," Clark said in Chicago. "You get tired when the game's played at the pace that it is. You can hit her on a cut, you can give her the ball in an iso situation. She makes it so easy for me in the backcourt and she obviously pulls the defense to her quite a bit."

Mitchell has scored at least 20 points in 31 of the Fever's 39 games this season, and at least 30 points seven times. She leads the league in 20-point games and is second in 30-point games. On the flip side, Mitchell has failed to reach 15 points just once, and has shot under 40% in a game just four times. 

How Mitchell gets her buckets

Play types

Mitchell primarily operates as a pick-and-roll ball-handler, especially when Clark is off the floor. However, she's more than capable of playing without the ball, and the Fever use her in a variety of ways when Clark is running the show. In fact, she has nearly 100 possessions in five different playtypes. 

Impressively, Mitchell scores more than one point per possession in every situation except spot-ups (for whatever reason, her 3-point shooting on spot-up possessions is significantly worse than every other play type). She also ranks in at least the 79th percentile in efficiency in every category besides spot-ups. 

Here is her play type breakdown, via Synergy Sports:

Shot types

Mitchell operates largely at the rim or behind the 3-point line. For the season, nearly three-fourths (71.9%) of her shots have come either in the restricted area (33.4%) or from 3 (38.5%). And her 3-point rate would be even higher if she didn't accidentally take so many foot-on-the-line 2s. 

Mitchell is seventh in the league in restricted area attempts per game (5.7) and seventh in the league in 3-point attempts per game (6.6). While she leads the league in 3-point shooting (45.5%), she's actually been slightly below average at the rim this season (60.1%), though that is offset a bit by her volume and high efficiency on non-restricted area paint attempts. 

Here's a look at Mitchell's shot chart:

One of the more interesting aspects of Mitchell's game is that for the last few seasons, she's actually shot slightly better on off-the-dribble jumpers than catch-and-shoot jumpers. Most players are the opposite, and Mitchell's ability to create her own shot and shoot a high clip off the bounce makes her extremely difficult to guard. 

Mitchell's 121 off-the-dribble 3s are the fifth-most in the league this season. And among the seven players who have taken at least 100 off-the-dribble 3s, she has been by far the most efficient. Marina Mabrey (40%) checks in second. Even if you filter all the way down to 50 off-the-dribble 3s, the only other player above 40% is Paige Bueckers (40.9%). 

In fact, Mitchell is having the most efficient high-volume off-the-dribble 3-point shooting season since Synergy began tracking WNBA data in 2010. 

The film

For Mitchell, everything starts with her quickness. Transition or halfcourt, with or without the ball, it's nearly impossible to stay in front of her. 

Just take this play from Sunday's game against Chicago as an example. When she catches the ball, every Sky defender is between her and the basket, and three of them are on the other side of halfcourt. Very few players could turn this picture into a fastbreak layup. 

But Mitchell turns on the jets, and from midcourt needs just two dribbles and two seconds to blaze past everyone and score. 

Here's another example in the halfcourt, from the Fever's game against the Dallas Wings on Aug. 13. Mitchell runs a high pick-and-roll with Monique Billings at the top of the key. The Wings try to hedge the screen to keep Mitchell from getting into the paint, and have defenders stationed on either block. But Mitchell scoots around Alanna Smith and then is so fast on a straight line that she beats both Maddy Siegrist and Bueckers to the rim for a layup. 

Mitchell's quickness is a nightmare for opponents. If you switch off for one split second, she's gone, and you can't recover. Here, against the Wings on Aug. 20, Mitchell is off the ball on the weak-side wing. Bueckers briefly turns her head to look at the ball, and in that instant Mitchell shoots off an off-ball screen toward the top of the key. Because she was late to react, Bueckers has to go under the screen, which leaves Mitchell wide open for a 3. 

Opponents must pick their poison against Mitchell, especially when she doesn't have the ball. Trail, and she can catch the ball on the run and beat your bigs to the rim. Play top side, and she can cut backdoor. 

Add in Mitchell's elite shooting ability, particularly off the bounce, and there's little that opponents can do. 

Go under on a screen or a hand-off to prevent her from getting into the paint, and she'll knock down a shot. 

Overreact to her putting the ball on the deck to try and cut off her drive, and she'll step back and knock down a shot. 

"She's such a badass man. She is the MVP," Sophie Cunningham said in Chicago. "When you have someone like her on your team, you're never out of a ball game... She's a hell of a player. No one in the league can stop her."