INDIANAPOLIS — One of Stephanie White’s biggest emphases this season was an improved defense. The Indiana Fever started a lot of training camp practices with defensive sets and brought in defensive-minded players, all in a hope to get the Fever to a top-3 defensive rating in 2026.
But that didn’t come to fruition in the Fever’s season opener on Saturday, as the Fever allowed 107 points to the Wings in a 107-104 loss.
“We got to be more disciplined,” Fever coach Stephanie White said. ” … Sometimes we were over-rotated when we didn’t need to be. Sometimes we had coverage breakdowns unnecessarily, we’re hanging around not going for the offensive boards but not getting back in transition defense, we gave up a lot in transition. So it’s, you know, all correctable things.”
Buy 2026 Indiana Fever tickets!
Wings forward Jessica Shepard torched the Fever in transition — multiple of the Wings’ transition points came from Arike Ogunbowale or Paige Bueckers heaving the ball upcourt to Shepard, who dropped the ball in undefended. Bueckers had a couple transition baskets of her own, and the Wings finished with 25 transition points.
Dallas also shot 59% from the field (39 of 66) and 52% from 3-point range (12 of 23), which, even as Indiana shot 52% from the field, is a mark that’s hard to beat.
“I think collectively, just a little bit more pride and taking it serious,” Kelsey Mitchell said. “Not that we weren’t but just knowing we play good defense down the stretch of possessions, get the rebounds, don’t give them another chance to really get it back. I think that shot us in the foot a little bit, and then when you let certain players get going, it’s hard to stop them.”
A couple defensive stoppages, including cleaning up small mistakes like a lane violation from Mitchell, an ill-timed shooting foul from Sophie Cunningham on a transition basket from Aziaha James or Alanna Smith scoring in transition with to push the Wings’ lead to seven points with less than a minute left, could be the difference between a win or a loss.
The Fever showed some promise in needed situations, like forcing two five-second violations in the second half — one in a one-point game with 90 seconds left. But they couldn’t fully capitalize.
The Fever have the offense to outpace anyone. That’s evident in their top three scorers of Mitchell, Caitlin Clark and Aliyah Boston accounting for 73 of their 104 points and Makayla Timpson scoring 11 off the bench.
They just need a bit more defense to go along with it.
“Our offense is obviously not the issue,” Clark said. “We’re perfectly fine on offense, and there’s still so many things we can do better on that end of the floor, but you’ve got to give Dallas credit. They’re really good. They shot the ball incredibly well.”
Chloe Peterson is the Indiana Fever beat reporter for IndyStar. Reach her at chloe.peterson@indystar.com or follow her on X at @chloepeterson67. Get IndyStar’s Indiana Fever and Caitlin Clark coverage sent directly to your inbox with our Caitlin Clark Fever newsletter. Subscribe to IndyStar TV: Fever for in-depth analysis, behind-the-scenes coverage and more.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Fever need ‘a little bit more pride’ in their defense, loss to Wings shows
Reporting by Chloe Peterson, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
