No one said it was going to be easy and no one expected it to be, but, still, a 21-point loss to the Connecticut Sun in Tuesday’s season opener was painful for the Indiana Fever.
DiJonai Carrington did a spectacular job guarding Caitlin Clark, who despite missing two-thirds of her shots still ended up with 20 points. The question should be: Why didn’t other players step up?
With so much focus on Clark, she was looking for her teammates, which explains why she ended up with 10 turnovers. The player that most benefited from her presence and play was NaLyssa Smith, who had 13 points and nine rebounds. Aliyah Boston, however, had four points and six rebounds. Erica Wheeler made 100 percent of her shots, but she only had three attempts throughout the whole game. Kelsey Mitchell had eight points in her first game back. Twelve days after the training camp began, the Fever have yet to learn to trust each other as they should—it will simply take more time.
However, the New York Liberty, the team that eliminated the Sun from last year’s playoffs, might not be the best opponent for beginning to build that trust. On Thursday, the Fever welcome the Liberty to Gainbridge Fieldhouse for the highly-anticipated home…
