The Indiana Fever look like legitimate title contenders this season with their 26-14 record and fourth seed so far. Caitlin Clark and Kelsey Mitchell are dismantling defenses and putting up scoring records on a regular basis. Still, Fever coach Stephanie White thinks there are glaring holes in the team’s overall game that need serious patching before the squad can seriously make a claim on the WNBA title.
Stephanie White Identifies The Fever’s Biggest Problem
On Friday, Aug. 28, the Fever steamrolled the Connecticut Sun with a 111-91 onslaught. While the Fever managed a commanding 20-point win, the Sun put them on their heels with a 28-19 first quarter, revealing defensive inconsistencies.
That has been the case for Caitlin Clark and Co. throughout the season. The Fever ranks among the worst teams defensively this season, with a defensive rating of 109.2.
White highlighted the same issue during the Fever’s postgame press conference after the Sun game. She acknowledged the poor defensive showing against the Sun and cautioned that such inconsistencies could derail their championship hopes.
“I think that we still see a little bit of the inconsistent nature of our group,” White said. “Sometimes it’s on the defensive end. We saw it in the game tonight, first and third quarters. Sometimes it’s on the offensive end when the ball gets stuck, and it’s not moving side to side.”
“We’re fortunate that we have players who can really explode at any moment, but that’s not a recipe for consistency and it’s not a recipe for fighting for a championship.”
The good thing is that despite their defensive woes and some hiccups on offense when the ball stops moving, the Fever have still found ways to keep winning and consistently posted multiple-game winning streaks.
With their win against the Sun, Indiana managed their second straight win after a two-game skid.
Clark and Mitchell have been major parts of that success. However, White wants the entire group to become more dependable on both ends of the floor. She wants her team to build upon the momentum they have gained during the regular season.
“So, while it feels really good that we got this and really good that we’ve won two in a row and every win is going to be important for us to position ourselves for what we want in home court and we’ll take them all,” White continued.
“But I think when we come back from this break, and we get an opportunity to get in the gym, we’ve got to continue to work on building that consistency, and I think this is a prime opportunity for us to do that.”
The Fever have already done enough to put themselves in the playoff picture. Their 26-14 record shows that they can win games and compete near the top of the standings.
But as Coach White pointed out, the team needs to scrape off the inconsistencies on both defense and offense to position themselves as a serious title threat heading into the playoffs.
