INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Fever’s four losses so far this season come with a glaring pattern.
Defense. Or, the lack of it.
The Fever sit eighth in defensive rating (points per 100 possessions) at 105, per WNBA stats through Monday. They are 13th in the league in points allowed in the paint at 43.5 per game. Right now, it’s a far cry from Fever coach Stephanie White’s preseason goal of being top 3 in defense — something she held both seasons she was coaching in Connecticut in 2023 and ‘24.
They’re getting picked apart defensively, Sophie Cunningham said Tuesday, because they are still only able to run one defensive scheme three weeks into the season.
“In this league, it’s too good. You can’t (only play one),” Cunningham said. “People are going to pick us apart, and you gotta dial in, you got to focus. Your IQ has to be on point. You have to know what schemes we’re doing and if you can’t do that, then you can’t play, and that’s the point where we’re at right now.”
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Last year, Cunningham said, the Fever had over 10 defensive schemes they could run in any given game. They have schemes partially installed this year, she added, but they’re not prepared to run them as an entire group.
“We have a ton of them, we try to do them, but they just break down because we can’t execute,” Cunningham said. “When I say that, you know, maybe three people can execute, but if the other two players can’t, it’s a breakdown on defense. So, one through five, it’s hard. Defense is hard, and we all just have to commit ourselves to doing the hard stuff. If you want to win, then you have to do the hard stuff.”
Running that one defensive scheme, White said, came as she tried to simplify the defense in order to give her players more confidence and make sure newcomers are familiar with the system.
The Fever have returned seven players, but they have a new starter in Monique Billings, and new rotational players in Myisha Hines-Allen and Raven Johnson. It takes time, White said, to get those players into the system. As they’ve adjusted to the system, she and her staff have had to simplify things.
“When you’re not executing a lot of things really well, you want to scale back and try to execute one or two really well and sort of get a mindset and get some confidence,” White said. “Then, you got to be able to expand. I think part of that is challenging them to be able to do that and do that consistently … We have a lot of new players who have been in different kinds of systems and who’ve been asked to do different things, and we got to connect all of that to what we’re trying to do.”
Sitting at 4-4, the Fever aren’t where they expected themselves to be early. They suffered breakdowns in a 90-88 loss to Golden State, then had a dismal game in a 100-84 loss to Portland. That led to a long meeting, one that was called by the coaches then became player-led, on what they can do to right the ship early.
A lot of it came back to defense — specifically, knowing everything about the opponent and their habits on the floor.
“I think being a pro is a lot of knowing personnel,” Fever guard Kelsey Mitchell said. “I don’t think it comes down to offense and defense, it’s just knowing people’s tendencies. I think that if I’m guarding her, then I know what she does and does not like to do, and I think that helps in a lot of situations for us. So, I think at the point of attack and knowing who we’re guarding, I think that’s important.”
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: Indiana Fever have used 1 defense so far, ‘have to do the hard stuff’ to sort out issues
Reporting by Chloe Peterson, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
