Indiana Fever third-year forward NaLyssa Smith picked up the steal and raced to midcourt. The Fever were in transition. Smith maneuvered, opening up an angle to sling the ball up the floor to teammate Katie Lou Samuelson.
But Smith telegraphed the bounce pass way too soon. The Seattle Storm easily took it back, passed up to Jewell Loyd, who sniped the transition triple.
Loyd’s already fifth made basket put Seattle up by nine points with roughly 90 seconds to go in the opening quarter. Caitlin Clark went scoreless in the frame, but the Fever later rallied to lead by two following the third quarter.
With two seconds to go in the fourth, Clark muffed an errant inbound pass by Kristy Wallace in the corner, spoiling an opportunity for the potential game-winning shot.
The Storm survived at home 85-83, plummeting the Fever’s record to 0-5 this season. Much of the final minutes consisted of lengthy reviews by the officials, in which Clark deemed afterward the longest minute of basketball she’s been part of in some time. Just last Monday, the Fever didn’t hit the game-tying jumper in an eventual 88-84 defeat to the unbeaten Connecticut Sun.
“These two definitely hurt the most,” Clark said. “We’re what, six points away from being 2-3 — instead of 0-5… it’s that close, and there’s so many instances of going back and watching the film of little things that you can easily fix… I think you have to find confidence in that, especially at this point being 0-5. If you’re upset by it, I don’t think that’s going to be too beneficial for us.”
Fever still searching for first victory in 2024
Smith’s intercepted pass and the Clark-Wallace disconnect are instances of this younger Fever team that is continuing to work out the kinks and chemistry two weeks into the regular season.
Clark and Wallace haven’t played together in the WNBA. Neither have Smith and Samuelson. The latter didn’t play at all in 2023 after childbirth. Chemistry is in the works. The Fever looked to have turned the corner following the 88-84 loss to the Sun, but they’re still hugging the wall.
The Storm’s two-player setup — Loyd and Nneka Ogwumike — decimated the Fever. The duo combined to score 54 points with Loyd at the guard spot and Ogwumike in the post. Loyd, the 2015 Rookie of the Year for Seattle, sluggishly shot 7-for-40 in the opening two games to start this season. When her efficiency progressed in the next two, Loyd’s 3-point shooting regressed.
Basically, the WNBA All-Star for the past three seasons had yet to round out her performance.
Then, the Fever came to town. Sure, the caveats are the Storm were back home Wednesday night after their three-game road trip, and those games gave more time for Loyd to get in the groove. But is it coincidence that the All-Star’s breakout performance happened when playing the Fever?
Their defense, much like their chemistry, have been works-in-progress for weeks. The Storm grabbed 17 offensive rebounds to the Fever’s 13. Five occurred in the last quarter.
Meanwhile, the Fever committed five turnovers in the final 4:30 of the contest. For the Storm’s ensuing possession after the first turnover in the aforementioned span, Sami Whitcomb’s triple extended Seattle’s lead to four.
When the Storm led by nine, Indiana’s Kelsey Mitchell stepped out of bounds on the Fever’s next possession. The fourth-quarter miscues cost the Fever. And even before, the Fever’s 12-2 run put them up 60-56 with 29 seconds to go in the third quarter. The quarter ended on an offensive rebound that turned into two points for the Storm.
“There's some little things that we kind of shot ourselves in the foot,” Clark said.
Caitlin Clark's performance
Clark heated up offensively in the third, scoring half the points in the run to regain the lead. She had shot 2-for-9 in the first half but sank two triples in the third for nine points. Clark made her second triple over fellow rookie Nika Muhl, who guarded her in this year’s Final Four when Iowa beat UConn, to tie it.
The tradeoff for Clark’s offensive outburst were three turnovers along with it. Turnovers had been an obstacle for the Fever, but they only had 11. Other areas substituted.
“We’re the youngest, most inexperienced team in the league,” an impassioned Fever head coach Christie Sides said. “I think we have 3.5 years of experience. Connecticut has 7.6 or something like that. Like, we are just trying to figure it out, and they’re doing a great job, and they stay positive. I’m proud of them for that. And we’re gonna get there. Our fight is there.”
The Fever play the Los Angeles Sparks on Friday to continue their three-game road trip.
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