INDIANAPOLIS — If the Fever got punched in the mouth Tuesday night in the season-opening 92-71 loss at Connecticut, as Indiana head coach Christie Sides described it, then the Fever got battered by the New York Liberty in the home opener Thursday night at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
The Fever were stomped 102-66. New York’s Breanna Stewart made scoring 31 points and 10 rebounds look easy, as the reigning MVP got back into top-caliber form. The 2016 top-overall pick didn’t turn the ball over, either, adding four assists. The Liberty totaled 22, led by guard Courtney Vandersloot, and methodically picked apart any remnants of Indiana’s lousy defense.
“Like, that is what’s going to help us, is when we figure out — if somebody keeps punching you, because they just keep punching us, we’ve got to be able to respond to it,” Sides said. “We’ve got to give some of that back. And that’s where we are. We’ve got to get to another level of mental toughness.”
At the 3:39-mark in the opening quarter, Fever starter Aliyah Boston attempted to score at the rim on New York’s Jonquel Jones. The referees called for the foul and that’s when Boston and Jones got tangled up. Boston lightly pushed off to unlock their arms, Jones pushed back, and then the 2016 first-round pick — identical to Stewart — got in Boston’s face and boldly stared. The move mirrored what Connecticut did Tuesday night: establish physicality and sustain it.
Boston, unfazed, knocked down both free throws to cut New York’s deficit to 13-7. But by the time the first quarter wrapped up, New York led by nine points. There wasn’t any push from Indiana. Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu made sure of it. The Fever’s push didn’t come until the third quarter, like what they tried to do and failed at in Connecticut. At least then, they got within six points. Indiana’s home crowd itched to cheer every possession. Gainbridge boiled, not over.
The Fever scored 12 unanswered points at the end of the third quarter Thursday night — and still trailed by another 11 to New York. It was also Caitlin Clark’s best frame, scoring seven of her nine points, making her only 3-pointer, going perfect at the line, and grabbing three boards in about eight minutes. Besides the third, Clark shot 0-for-6 from deep. In fairness, half were in-and-out. But compared to Connecticut’s stingy defense, New York didn’t ease up on Clark too.
“People are playing her hard,” Indiana’s Katie Lou Samuelson noted. “People are playing her aggressively… we trust her. We want to keep figuring out how to work with her in the best way. Like I said, I think we can continue to help her get some space because teams are really, really, really, hounding her full-court, 94 feet. We got to do some stuff as a unit to flow better with that.”
About the Fever's flow, and lack thereof
Samuelson scored 10 points in the loss. She was impactful in that when Clark got doubled so severely, she was there to hit the clutch and needed 3-pointers. Samuelson scored her only two points of the second half on the Fever’s opening possession in the third quarter. Fewer than two minutes later, she fell to the floor, grabbed her leg, and subbed out. She played fewer than four minutes in the second half but is okay. She said afterward. Grace Berger helped fill in the minutes.
During the play in which Samuelson banged knees pretty hard, Clark sprinted over to Erica Wheeler on the perimeter, called for the ball, and flung her arms in what looked like frustration when she didn’t get it. The ball eventually pinballed around to NaLyssa Smith on the wing, who didn’t get the shot off in time for the shot-clock violation. The Fever’s offense lacked creativity for much of the game. Worse, the defense didn’t even things out. As Sides said: WNBA teams don't win by scoring 60 points or giving up 100.
Once more, to be fair, the Fever’s opening schedule is darn rigorous. New York, last year's WNBA runner-up is also darn tough to beat when Stewart scores 31 and three starters reach double figures. Clark is fresh to the team and jelling with Wheeler, Smith, Boston, and Samuelson will take time. Thursday's starters were the same as Tuesday's, but the team is still working on getting Kelsey Mitchell back into the flow of things from her ankle injury.
“We've just got to get an attitude a little bit when people score on us,” Sides said. “You just can't let it be so easy… we had 17,000 fans here tonight and we can't thank them enough… it got really loud when we cut it to 11… we’ve got to make fans proud, you know, with what we put on the floor. I will take it. We didn’t do that tonight and it’s unacceptable.”
In overcoming obstacles last season, Sides said tweaking lineups, experience, and working on the defensive side of the ball in practice helped out. What’s worrisome for Indiana: they play at New York pretty soon on Saturday afternoon.
“We don't have any practice time to go fix this right now,” Sides. “So we’ve just got to figure out — pause — we just have to get better, more mentally tough.”
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