After a loss to open the season last weekend, the Indiana Fever righted the ship over the past week.
Caitlin Clark and the Fever went 2-1, with dominant wins over the Los Angeles Sparks and Seattle Storm, and a tight overtime loss to the Washington Mystics. They did so despite some defensive struggles and as Aliyah Boston battled through an injury. While it seems to most like the Fever got back on track, the official WNBA page disagrees.
Brian Martin put together his Week 1 power rankings for the WNBA, where he dropped the Fever way down the list. After being third in the rankings last week, Martin ranked the Fever No. 8 in this week’s edition. Here’s his reasoning for why the Fever plummeted, despite the winning record.
“So far this season, teams are 7-2 when scoring 100 or more points,” Martin said. “The only two losses belong to the Fever, who put up triple-digit scores but still fell short, surrendering 104 and a season-high 107 points to the Mystics and Wings, respectively.”
“There’s no questioning Indiana’s firepower, with Caitlin Clark breaking the WNBA record for most career games with 20+ points and 10+ assists just three games into her third season, but the Fever will need to improve their defense, which ranks 12th in opponent points allowed (91.8).” – Brian Martin, WNBA.com
Martin brings up a good point about the defensive struggles. It looked better against the Storm, but the loss to the Mystics was eye-opening. Indiana’s offense has been great so far, but the defense will need to be much better if the Fever want to compete for a championship.
Clark and company will have a chance to keep up their winning ways this week when they host the Portland Fire on Wednesday. That game will tip off at 6 p.m. CT and can be seen on the USA Network.
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This article originally appeared on Hawkeyes Wire: Indiana Fever tumble in updated WNBA power rankings
Reporting by Zach Hiney, Hawkeyes Wire / Hawkeyes Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
