NEW YORK — Late in the first quarter against the New York Liberty, Indiana Fever head coach Stephanie White and assistant coach Briann January stood on the sideline intently watching a defensive possession. A few feet away, Caitlin Clark stood with a piece of paper rolled into her right hand, watching the same sequence develop, calling out instructions to teammates.
Scenes like this have been common throughout Indiana’s opening 25 games of the season. Coach Clark has often been as much of a presence as Player Clark. She has studied Indiana’s sets nearly as much as she has run them. After Tuesday night’s 98-84 loss at New York, Clark has missed almost as many games (12, including the Commissioner’s Cup championship) as she has played (13).
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To put it gently, the first half of the season was uneven for the Fever. Clark has dealt with injuries to her left quad and both groins, which have caused four total sideline stints since the preseason, including an absence from last week’s All-Star Game. The Fever also had to adjust to DeWanna Bonner being granted a release only nine games after she became a high-profile free-agent acquisition in Indiana. White missed multiple games for personal reasons as well.
“We’ve obviously hit challenges along the way, but I think the way we’ve responded has really shown that we really can do anything,” fourth-year guard Lexie Hull said.
The Fever, who sit in the middle of the league standings, have struggled to find a rhythm. They’ve played only four full-strength games this season. Yes, they’ve been resilient, but questions persist about how long they can keep trying to bounce back.
“We’ve got to figure out how to maintain consistency with what we have,” White said.
Heading into the season, Indiana recognized that it would take time for its pieces to jell. White headlined a largely new coaching staff, and only five players remained from last season, when the Fever went 20-20 and stormed into the playoffs after opening with eight losses in their first nine games.
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Still, expectations were high. Clark’s definition of success had been simple: “A championship,” she said on media day.
The objective sounds as if it has remained the same.
“We have really high standards for ourselves,” Hull said. “We have expectations for what the end of the postseason looks like, and that goal doesn’t change.”
But what has changed is just how realistic that potential outcome seems.
The Fever’s flashes of greatness have been brief through the first 24 regular-season games: quick blips in an otherwise topsy-turvy start. The highs were high. Clark scored 32 points, 3 shy of her career high, in a win over the Liberty on June 14. That afternoon, she hit seven 3-pointers, tying a career high, all of which came from beyond 25 feet in a virtuosic performance.
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Against the Minnesota Lynx on July 1, Indiana put together its most complete defensive game, holding last year’s finals runner-ups to season lows in points (59) and shooting (34.9). Clark didn’t play in the win, but the result still served as a reminder of what the Fever can be. “I’m proud of them that they can see it come to fruition,” White said afterward.
Yet positive stretches have often given way to lulls. Good weeks have flowed into bad ones. Indiana has won three consecutive games only once this year, and it has as many win streaks (four) as losing streaks.
“Now it’s just about being consistent and doing that more times than not,” Fever wing Sophie Cunningham said.
Consistency will define the Fever by season’s end.
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White has preached that Indiana’s defensive intensity is non-negotiable, whether Clark is in the lineup or not. The Fever entered the All-Star break eighth in defensive rating and are hovering around league average in a number of key defensive metrics. At times, their point-of-attack defense has been disruptive. Other times, White has called out her team’s defensive discipline.
“There will always be days when we don’t make shots and we’re not quite in flow offensively, but I think our mentality on the defensive end has to come back strong, has to come back sharp, has to come back hungry,” White said.
Against the Liberty on Tuesday, Indiana led by 4 points at halftime but squandered its advantage and trailed by 2 points after three quarters. The Liberty then went on a 14-1 second-half run, flipping the scoreline and leading to the eventual result.
“The difference in championship-caliber teams are those two or three minutes in a ballgame,” White said, “where you can’t have those miscommunications, you can’t have the breakdowns, you can’t have the poor shot selection. Games and series are won and lost in those small margins.”
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White said the Fever’s defense “got a little soft” over that stretch. Turnovers and poor shot selection led to defensive lapses. New York, she said, pinged the basketball around the perimeter as Indiana’s stout first-half defense lagged.
“Not as good,” White said when reflecting on her team’s second-half defensive performance.
Though White wants a more consistent effort, Indiana’s second-half outlook is also murky because of Clark’s uncertain status. Clark traveled to New York with the Fever, but she met with doctors Monday and Tuesday for additional opinions on her right groin injury (her prior three injuries were all to her left leg). White has repeatedly said decisions about Clark’s return will be made with her long-term health in mind.
“These soft tissue injuries sometimes nag until you can actually have time to really allow them to heal in the offseason,” White said. “So we’ll just take it one day at a time.”
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The Fever have already used six starting lineups, only one fewer than they used all of last season. They have adapted to playing different styles depending on their personnel. With Clark, Indiana’s offense relies on its high-usage scorer who can dissect defenses. But without her, the Fever rely on their pace and ball movement. Both have proven to have some success; nevertheless, identity clarity seems integral to achieving long-term success.
In New York, the Fever faced an opponent with championship expectations. The Liberty are playing up to a championship standard, especially with the return of star center Jonquel Jones, who had 18 points and nine rebounds in 22 minutes.
“That’s where we gotta be, where they are,” three-time All-Star guard Kelsey Mitchell said.
Yet it’s unclear if this version of the Fever can get there.
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Cunningham said she still believes Indiana has the pieces to peak at the right time. Mitchell said that the locker room remains connected despite all the team has been through. However, the only thing that has been consistent about the Fever this year is how inconsistent they have been.
“They fight for each other every day. They play for each other every day,” White said. They’ve been dealt a lot of different circumstances, and they handled it with grace, with humility, and haven’t felt sorry for themselves.”
That all is admirable. But questions remain if such resilience will pay dividends or if their inconsistency will doom them come playoff time.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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