UNCASVILLE, Conn. — The opening question in the postgame press conference for Indiana Fever head coach Christie Sides Monday night was, “What went so terribly awry defensively in the team’s 89-72 loss at the Connecticut Sun?” Sides paused for seconds, then she responded.
“I’m gonna start with, you can’t at this level coach effort,” Sides said. “I felt like we were just trying to ask them to keep playing hard. You can't start there, you can’t play in this league if you have to coach effort. It's just too hard.”
The Sun led 55-35 at the break, punctuated by Dijonai Carrington swiping the ball from Caitlin Clark at midcourt and scoring at the buzzer. Clark idled, put her hands up in the paint, and later untucked her jersey on the way to the locker room. Carrington and Clark have met three times this season. Carrington overwhelmingly won the first and third meetings in Mohegan Sun Arena.
The Sun are now 3-0 on the Fever this season. Two wins at home, and another in Indianapolis.
Midway through the third quarter, Sides pulled all four starters beside 2023 No. 1 pick Aliyah Boston. Yes, that means 2024 top-overall pick Clark sat the last 15 or so minutes of the loss. Clark’s 22 minutes Monday are the fewest the rookie has played this season. Her eight shots matched two other games this season as her fewest taken. Neither came while playing the Sun.
Clark ended with 10 points, two 3-pointers, two assists, three turnovers, and four fouls. The rookie wasn’t initially taken out with the other starters midway through the third quarter. Clark was benched about 30 seconds later after she picked up her fourth foul. Meanwhile, the bench unit with Boston fully entered when the Fever trailed by 28 points. They later trimmed that to 17.
“We were down 28,” Sides said on the reasoning for benching her starters. “I wanted to put a group in there that would get out and play some defense. Really proud of that group that went out there and cut the lead. They played hard. We got Atlanta coming up. We got Chicago coming up. Just thinking ahead.”
Caitlin Clark weighs in
Clark — to no surprise — was later asked what Sides' message to the team was postgame.
“Yeah, I think it was just like, ‘We can’t coach effort,'” Clark said. “This is a team that you can’t come out and be lackadaisical against. They’re just that good, they’re going to punch you in the mouth. I don’t think we had it from the jump… effort is not something they can coach… we could’ve played with a lot better energy… we didn’t play good defense… everything they got was easy.”
Clark also said that she did hear the Sun fans chanting “We want Caitlin” with three minutes to go in the fourth quarter and the Sun leading comfortably, and that it was cute. She said there was not any conversation between her and Sides for sitting the last 15 minutes of the game.
What’s next for the Indiana Fever?
The Fever's three-game road trip ended Monday night with the defeat. Indiana went 1-2 in that stretch and is now 3-10 on the season — which is the second-worst in the Eastern Conference. The Sun got back to winning ways to improve to 10-1, the best in the whole WNBA. Next up for the Fever is their three-game homestand, beginning with the Atlanta Dream Thursday evening.
Monday night’s loss yet spirited fight by the bench does raise some potential questions.
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