INDIANAPOLIS — Fever coach Stephanie White doesn’t anticipate playing Aliyah Boston, Lexie Hull or Tyasha Harris in the Fever’s preseason game Thursday against the Dallas Wings, she told reporters on Wednesday morning.
Boston (lower leg), Hull (hamstring) and Harris (knee) also did not play in Saturday’s preseason opener at New York, which the Fever won 109-91.
“I don’t know if we’re going to play them tomorrow, I think we’re still going to be cautious with that,” White said. “I think the goal is probably to get them some minutes on Saturday (against Nigeria) if we can. Still, I mean, we’ve got another week again from that game until our home opener, so we’ll take it slow. We’ll see how it goes. Every day they’ve been adding things that they’ve been doing in their return-to-play, and so there’s no reason right now, I don’t think, to rush it. We’ll make sure that they’re fully ready to go.”
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Boston injured her lower leg in her final regular season game in Unrivaled at the end of February, and that forced her to miss the Unrivaled playoffs and FIBA World Cup Qualifying Tournament. She has been active in the portions of practice open to media throughout training camp, which is mostly shooting drills and warmups.
“Feeling great,” Boston said when asked how she is doing on the return-to-play regimen. “Just doing what we’ve got to do to get back to playing, but yeah, I’m feeling great.”
Boston also affirmed that she would have played in the preseason game against New York if it was a regular-season game.
Hull has also been active in the portions of training camp open to media, working through an entire shooting regimen as normal before each practice. White described Hull’s injury as just some tightness that they don’t want to risk getting worse.
Harris, who is coming back from a knee surgery that knocked her out of all but five games while she was in Dallas last season, is a bit further back than Boston in her return-to-play regimen, White said. She has not been doing warmups in the portions of practice open to media, but has been featured in the Fever’s photos of practice this week.
The preseason game against Dallas is the second of three for the Fever throughout training camp. Indiana will also play the Nigerian National team on Saturday ahead of the season-opener against Dallas comes on May 9.
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: Why the Indiana Fever are sitting some starters vs Dallas Wings, Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd
Reporting by Chloe Peterson, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
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