The Indiana Fever saw their three-game winning streak snapped on Sunday as they suffered a blowout loss at home to the Washington Mystics. For former ESPN commentator Linda Cohn, the blame for that blowout loss falls on coach Stephanie White.
On the latest episode of her YouTube Show, Cohn said that when a team performs as poorly as the Fever did, she “tends to blame the coaching staff” for when a team looks “unprepared” in a big game. She felt that Fever superstar Caitlin Clark can only do so much and warned that the top-seeded Minnesota Lynx could make things very difficult for them over the final two games.
“Stephanie White and the Fever can burn the tape if they want, but when a team comes out like that, I tend to blame the coaching staff for not having these players prepared…” Cohn said. “Caitlin Clark could do just so much and now the best team in the league is waiting for them in the Minnesota Lynx. And they are LICKING their chops. How will the Fever respond?”
Too harsh on White?
Some fans disagreed with Cohn’s assessment of White’s coaching, asserting that Clark and her teammates both struggled with their shooting on Sunday.
“How many offensive fouls do you think Clark has in her each night? She’s so (expletive) lucky the refs turn a blind eye because if they actually called them she would foul out of every game,” one user remarked on X.
“What does coaching have to do with her missing 14 shots and having 5 TOV?” wrote another.
“Yea it’s Steph’s fault she went 6-20 lmao they had no issues coming out to play against the miserable Tempo, but when a playoff team gets on the floor, you know CC gone fold,” a third wrote.
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Stephanie White is certainly not perfect, but there really is only so much that coaching can do for a team when Clark finishes a game 6/20 with five turnovers and a -14. Kelsey Mitchell and Aliyah Boston struggled too and the team got barely any help at all from the bench.
One could argue that when the team has a rough game it’s on the coaching, but sometimes it really just is an off-night.
Do you agree with Cohn? Who should take the blame for Sunday’s loss to the Mystics?
