INDIANAPOLIS — On the surface, a team recording 13 steals in a game means it performed well on defense. For the Indiana Fever, it was a different story in their 104-102 overtime loss to the Washington Mystics on Friday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
The Fever led 28-21 at the end of the first quarter after shooting 53% from the field and going 5 of 6 from 3. The Mystics led 31-30 by the 7:59 mark of the second quarter. Indiana had seven fouls in the second compared to four in the first and only scored nine points.
“We got into a foul fest (during the second quarter),” guard Caitlin Clark said. “It’s hard to play in transition when we’re just fouling and giving them easy points. It just comes down to defense and a will to defend. What’s gonna allow us to play in transition, and that’s what you saw in the fourth quarter when we got stops. That was exciting. That’s how we want to play all the time.”
Indiana went on a 12-0 run at the beginning of the fourth and took a 70-69 lead with 6:51 remaining. The Fever’s fourth-quarter surge, spearheaded by Clark’s five 3s, didn’t shake the Mystics. Washington scored 22 of their 58 points in the paint during the fourth quarter and overtime.
When asked about the catalyst behind the Mystics’ points in the paint, forward Monique Billings said the Mystics “made tough shots,” but noted the Fever failed to execute their coverage and needed to do better at communicating on the defensive end of the floor.
”Shots did start falling, but we’ve been letting that dictate how we play defense too much, which is disappointing for us as a group,” Clark said. “We have to be able to defend all the time. So, I think that’s our biggest area of growth. When things aren’t going well, we still have to be able to defend and find ways to get stops, and we haven’t done that very well. So, it’s an opportunity for us to improve.”
Said coach Stephanie White:
“We put a lot of pressure on our offense to be perfect when we don’t consistently defend. This is on us as coaches; this is our responsibility. We’ve got to be disciplined the entire game. We’ve got to be disciplined every possession.
“We’re taking chances, we’re fouling shooters who are about to shoot tough shots, we’re having breakdowns in coverage. We need to find combinations of players whose net efficiency is higher. We can’t wait to play defense when we feel good and we’re making shots. It seems like we’re making shots, and everything’s flowing, and we got energy on the defensive end, and when we are not, we don’t. It’s got to be the other way around. The energy has to be dictated on that end of the floor, and that’s a mindset.”
White added her team is missing intensity, attention to detail and initial positioning. She praised Washington as a team that “keeps moving,” and said the Fever can’t afford to rest on defense.
The Fever have allowed 100 points in two of their first three games of the season. Indiana was down 105-100 to the Dallas Wings with 36.4 seconds left in the season opener on May 9. They cut the lead to two points with 14 seconds remaining, but Kelsey Mitchell missed a potential game-tying 3.
On Friday, the Fever were down 87-79 with 50.5 seconds left and forced overtime. The Mystics led 103-99 with 11.3 seconds remaining, but a Lexie Hull 3-pointer cut the lead to a point with 6.2 seconds on the clock. Mystics guard Sonia Citron hit a free throw to extend their lead to 104-102. Mitchell missed a 21-foot pull-up jumper as the clock hit zero.
Indiana has displayed grit in the closing moments of games. While White commended her team’s ability to thrive in the clutch, she admitted the Fever are in “too many” late-game situations.
Clark agrees.
“If we don’t have three clunky quarters, we don’t force ourselves into basketball heroics,” Clark said. “We don’t want to play that way. I know it’s exciting for the crowd, but we should have had ourselves in position, especially after the first quarter, to control this ball game.”
Joshua Heron is an enterprise and Fever reporter. Follow him on Twitter at @HeronReports. 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 missing ‘a will to defend’ after another loss they scored over 100 points in
Reporting by Joshua Heron, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
