The Indiana Fever opened up their season a month ago, with a game against the Connecticut Sun. Four days ago, the teams met for the third time this year. So it should make sense to compare the two games, just to see how—and if—the Fever have made progress during those 12 games, right?
On the surface, things don’t look too good; the Fever lost 89-72, scoring one more point than they did on opening night, while allowing the Sun to score three fewer points. Connecticut, though, took it light during the second half. In the first half, they scored 55 points, punctuated by a 16-4 run to close out the second quarter. Overall, it appears nothing much has changed. The Fever are bad defensively.
On the offensive end, things also don’t look good. Caitlin Clark did not score a single basket in the second half. Head coach Christie Sides just took her out of the game, limiting time on the court to 22 minutes in total. When was the last time she played just 22 minutes during a game? On February 12, 2023 in a blowout win against Rutgers. She was taken off the court because, as explained by Sides, the team was down by 28 points and Clark was in foul trouble. During the postgame press conference, before anybody asked a single question, Sides said:
At this level you can’t coach effort and I felt like we were just trying to ask them to keep playing hard. You can’t start there, you can’t play in this league if you have to coach effort.
The syntax was a bit tortured, but the message was clear: The players need to show her that they care. If they don’t, it will bring forth a neccessary shake up, either in the rotation or roster-wise. However, Sides’ squad did respond on Thursday, winning 91-84 against the Atlanta Dream.
Aliyah Boston was tremendous, playing through contact and getting to the basket for easy points. Against the Dream, she showed perseverance, leadership and emotion, talking to the referees and igniting her teammates. Although Indiana once led by 18 points, Atlanta rallied to tie the game at 77 late in the fourth quarter. This was when Boston stepped up and carried her team to the win. Clark continued to feed her the ball, which allowed the center to score a game-high 27 points. She also grabbed 13 boards. Kelsey Mitchell scored a season-high 24 points. Katie Lou Samuelson was great off the bench, going 3-of-4 from 3-point land. What’s most important, the Fever played defense when it counted the most, forcing two shot clock violations in a row to fend off the Dream’s comeback.
With Commissioner’s Cup play now complete, the Fever will host the Chicago Sky on Sunday (12 p.m. ET, CBS) and the Washington Mystics on June 19 (7 p.m. ET, LeaguePass). We’ll see if they can maintain the momentum and the energy from their win over the Dream.
