Head coach Stephanie White didn’t hold back in her assessment of the Indiana Fever’s performance in their blowout loss to the Las Vegas Aces in Game 1 of their first-round series in the WNBA playoffs.
Indiana trailed by as many as 27 points in Las Vegas’ 102-85 win, unable to find a way to slow down superstar forward A’ja Wilson. The four-time MVP exploded for 38 points on 15-of-19 shooting, along with 16 rebounds, two assists, two steals and four blocks.
No one from the Fever reached the 20-point mark, with Aliyah Boston leading the team in scoring with 18 points. Caitlin Clark finished with 15 points on an abysmal 6-of-17 shooting, although she did record 10 assists.
Following the heartbreaking loss, White addressed the Fever’s shortcomings and pointed to their turnovers as a major factor in the loss.
Indiana committed 16 turnovers and allowed Las Vegas to score 28 points off those mistakes. Clark accounted for six of those turnovers, a team-high.
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“I mean 28 points off of turnovers,” White told reporters when discussing the Fever’s loss. “It’s, you know, your first line of transition defense is offensive execution, and 28 points off of turnovers and 17 points from the free throw line, so you know those are easy buckets. So we didn’t do our job.”
For what it’s worth, Clark also expressed frustration about the Fever’s loss, calling the team’s actions “sloppy.” However, it’s worth noting that she mentioned that the plays they were running were not great, adding that she and her teammates didn’t get a lot of open looks.
“I thought what we were running just wasn’t great and just nobody got an easy or open look,” Clark stated.
It’s certainly clear that a lot went wrong for the Fever in the loss. Their usually potent offense was absent, and since they are not really a good defensive team, their struggles on that end contributed to the blowout loss.
White, Clark and the rest of the Fever have no time to point fingers, though. After all, they will return to action on Tuesday for a do-or-die Game 2 at home. The team needs to win if it wants to extend the series.
