With nearly a full week of the regular season under their belt, the Indiana Fever may have begun with a 0-4 start. However, anyone attuned to where they were last year and where the rest of the league was headed shouldn’t be surprised with their winless start.
More to that point, a young and finding-their-way Indiana roster has come out of the gate by facing two teams, the New York Liberty and Connecticut Sun, who are favored to make deep postseason runs this year and are led by some of the W’s best talent.
Their regular-season opener at Connecticut found them falling by way of a 92-71 final before dropping the home opener to New York, 102-66. From there, they’ve played each team once more and have shown noticeable improvement, while losing in both efforts by an average of 12.5 points.
Below are a few of the standout points of their first four games.
Caitlin Clark’s Ascension
Throughout the start of their season, there are plenty of areas that one could glean positivity from including the strong start to NaLyssa Smith’s third season, Kelsey Mitchell’s improving health and play, or the emergence of free agent signee Temi Fagbenle.
But the easy start is the No. 1 overall draft pick, Caitlin Clark, and as most would expect, her introduction into the W has come with its fair share of hiccups. Yet, in just four games has shown plenty of examples of the player that fans have grown accustomed to during her time in Iowa.
While finishing as the team’s leading scorer in three of their four games, getting into her flow offensively has been a struggle at times with the likes of the Sun’s DiJonai Carrington and New York’s Betnijah Laney-Hamilton covering her on defense.
— Indiana Fever (@IndianaFever) May 21, 2024
However, fans of the Indiana Fever and Clark alike have seen more than a few glimpses of the offense that she is sure to bring to the team as she continues to get acclimated to the league including but not limited to her dolling out her five assists in the fourth quarter on Monday night to give Indiana a chance at a come from behind victory.
In that same contest, she converted on a 33-foot jumper from deep in transition to put them ahead by two with seven minutes remaining in a game that ended in favor of the Sun, 88-84.
As for where Clark goes moving forward, the balance of moving on from mistakes made in past games and leaning on film is pivotal to her growth:
“You go back and you watch a lot of film, whether that’s the team film, whether you watch the game by yourself, individual breakdown film with your coach. I think it is almost positive that you don’t have time to sulk, you don’t have time to do whatever. You watch the film and you put it to the side. You take what you learned and go put it on the court and try to implement it for our next game.”
Indiana Fever rookie guard Caitlin Clark
Clark leads the team with 17 ppg on 41.5% shooting from the field along with 5.5 assists and four rebounds a night.
Indiana Fever On The Glass
Again, with a small sample size, Indiana has shown early on that they’ve been able to match the rebounding battle with teams of length like Connecticut and New York.
In four games, they’ve been outrebounded by both teams but have lost the battle of the boards by a narrow margin of 4.25 rebounds a night. Furthermore, that comes against two teams who tout three of the top four rebounders from the 2023 season in league leader Alyssa Thomas, Breanna Stewart, and Jonquel Jones.
Aliyah Boston, who sat at No. 5 overall as a rookie, has continued at the same pace with seven RPGs thus far while being aided by NaLyssa Smith and Temi Fagbenle.
Fagbenle, who has come off the bench in all four games, is returning to the league after playing last in 2019 with the Minnesota Lynx and is coming off of her best outing of the season on Monday night when she tallied 11 points and 10 rebounds against the Sun.
Temi Fagbenle with the career night 💥 pic.twitter.com/LppktXzxCd
— Indiana Fever (@IndianaFever) May 21, 2024
After their game Monday, Fagbenle touched on the difference in which she approached her latest showcase. She also noted getting words of wisdom from one of the league’s best talents coming off of the bench:
“Just wanting to make more of an impact coming off the bench. That’s something I’m not used to. I actually hit up Alysha Clark because she’s amazing at that sixth man, for sure and so she gave me some nice pointers. I just set my mind straight and went to work.”
Indiana Fever rookie forward Temi Fagbenle
Ball Security
As their offense comes along, so too will their ability to take care of the ball. In the early frame of their season, turnovers have been an issue in both getting their offense ironed out and keeping them in games.
Averaging 17.5 turnovers thus far, they have also averaged nearly 14 points a game given up off of turnovers. Their last two contests have been decided by 14 points or less.
Speaking after their regular season opener, head coach Christie Sides reflected on what needed to change moving forward to cut down on their turnovers as well as recognizing when to help relieve pressure off of doubles on Clark:
“We’ve got to help her (Caitlin Clark) out. We’ve got to do a better job of coming back to the ball. We worked on that several times this week, just knowing that was going to probably be what they (Connecticut) were going to do both on her and possibly Erica Wheeler and Kelsey (Mitchell) if she played.
We have to do a better job of getting somebody back to the ball. Her coming off and when that double team happens her getting off of it and then us looking to go inside.”
Indiana head coach Christie Sides
They registered 25 turnovers in their opener to Connecticut before notching no more than 17 in any of their contests throughout the first week of play.
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