Recapping the Indiana Fever loss to Seattle Storm; defense lacking in blowout | VIDEO
Scott Agness takes you inside the Indiana Fever game Thursday — no resistance defensively, Storm hits in third quarter, physicality allowed is troubling, Clark & Co. finish game despite blowout.
The Indiana Fever (1-8) suffered another loss on Thursday, this time to the Seattle Storm. It was their second meeting in a week. And of their nine games, they’ve played four teams twice already. (The game at Las Vegas was the one exception.)
It was the Fever’s second-worst performance of the season, a 103-88 loss. The starters, including Caitlin Clark, finished the game so the score is not indicative of how much of a blowout it was.
Watch my video recap of the Fever’s loss below, which includes postgame comments — from Clark, NaLyssa Smith and head coach Christie Sides.
Former Fever GM Kelly Krauskopf and shooting guard Katie Douglas sat courtside. It was also special because former Fever forward Ebony Hoffman is an assistant coach for the Storm. Former Colts wide receiver T.Y. Hilton continues to be a regular at games, sitting courtside next to the Fever bench.
Defense, defense, defense. That’s the underlying issue (other than the brutal schedule from the WNBA). The Storm shot 56% and scored 56 paint points.
With Temi Fagbenle (left foot) and Erica Wheeler (personal reasons) unavailable, Smith returned to the starting lineup and produced. She finished with 23 points and 10 rebounds. IU grad Grace Berger received her first meaningful minutes of the season — 23 in all — and was a net positive.
The Fever are holding a light practice on Friday before a difficult home-road back-to-back this weekend. Saturday v Chicago Sky at noon, then Sunday at New York at 7 p.m.
Which is why the starters, including Clark, finishing this game did not make sense. Clark is visibly exhausted and beat up, yet she played all but the final four seconds of the first half.
Once the Fever get through the weekend and return to Indy late Sunday, they can finally take a few days to rest. That’ll be the end of playing 11 games in 20 days — whereas most teams have played five or six games so far. Then … they finally have a normal schedule and can focus on themselves in practice, and start to build more on-court chemistry.
And here’s what was said postgame