Fever were preseason title contenders, but lack of 'killer instinct' holding Indiana back

Indianapolis Star

8 hours ago

INDIANAPOLIS – A fourth-quarter fallout has become a recent, and unfortunate, trend for the Indiana Fever.
In three of their past four games, the Fever held double-digit second-half leads. In those games, all against teams with similar or worse records, they walked off the court defeated.
The most recent example came against the Los Angeles Sparks on Thursday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Indiana led by 10 at the start of the fourth quarter, but Los Angeles had an 85-75 win at the final buzzer.
Another inexplicable loss for the Fever, who now sit under .500 again (7-8).
'I think that we haven't shown a killer instinct yet,' Fever coach Stephanie White said postgame. 'We have had a tendency to relax in those moments, instead of, for lack of a better term, go for the kill right now. We've had empty possessions where we've been too lax with the basketball and have either taken poor shots or not valued every opportunity we have to score, we've had breakdowns on the defensive end of the floor. It's moments of mental lapses or mental relaxation that you can't have in this league.'
The trend started on their first West Coast road trip of the season.
Indiana led by as many as 13 points in the third quarter against the Valkyries in San Francisco, then lost by 11. Indiana then traveled to Las Vegas, where a double-digit second-half lead turned into an eight-point loss to the Aces.
Interestingly enough, their only win of this four-game stretch came against Seattle, which came into the game with a 9-5 record.
There isn't anything physical to point to. It can't be because of the West Coast road trip, as they returned home to Indianapolis on Thursday and lost to the Sparks in the same way. It can't be because of the addition or the absence of Fever star Caitlin Clark — she sat out Thursday night because of a groin injury, and is listed as 'day-to-day.'
It's something that is simply mental for the Fever. They relax too early, they make mental mistakes and the game slips away from them.
'We got to be better from top to bottom,' Fever guard Sophie Cunningham said. 'We have to have better energy, better focus. At the end of the day, we've shown that we can do it, it's all about consistency, and we're trying to give each other grace and patience. But at some point you gotta, you gotta dig in and say, enough is enough.'
The Fever have, too, gone through a seismic amount of change in the young season so far. Both Clark and Cunningham were out for two weeks because of injuries at the beginning of the season, and DeWanna Bonner left the team for personal reasons right when they returned.
Indiana was in a state of limbo with Bonner, who missed five games, for a while before they eventually waived her, citing she thought it wasn't a good fit. Fever backup center Damiris Dantas will also be away from the team for five games as she competes in the FIBA AmeriCup with the Brazilian National Team.
Missing Clark, specifically, changes the game exponentially. Clark is at the top of every team's scouting report, and she draws defenders at 94 feet. She is consistently the opponents' top priority, drawing double-teams and extra attention, spacing out the floor for her teammates.
It's a completely different game when Clark is out. But it's something the Fever will need to learn to work around.
'With the injuries, particularly, you can't really maintain a consistent rotation,' White said.'So, it's just something that — we're not necessarily always reinventing the wheel, but at the same time, when you've got such a ball-dominant player like Caitlin out of the game, who makes everybody's job a lot easier, then you've got to find ways to try and position.'
The Fever were considered a potential championship contender at the beginning of the season. But injuries, a shuffling roster, and an inability to close out games put the Fever scuffling early in the year.
But it's still early. With a roster the Fever hopes will stay put, Indiana has 29 games to find that consistency, find that killer instinct they need to become potential contenders once again.
And, Cunningham says, this early adversity allows them room to grow.
'I think so far this season, we've had a lot of distractions, you can call it, some injuries, don't know who's playing, so there's again, there's a lot of distractions,' Cunningham said. 'But I think that's really good for us. Let's go through the adversity early. Let's learn from it. Good news is we're not going to peak too early.'