Indiana Fever’s flaws are exposed in the WNBA semifinals as they face elimination

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INDIANAPOLIS — Stephanie White doesn’t want to dwell too much on what the Indiana Fever have accomplished thus far.

The outside world has celebrated the Fever’s surprising run to the WNBA semifinals, which includes overcoming five season-ending injuries to still upset Atlanta and take a game from the Las Vegas Aces. But White, the Fever coach, wants to build a foundation in Indiana that lasts long beyond this postseason.

“We’re striving for so much more,” White said. “Every time you have an opportunity to go on the floor and put yourself in position to win, that’s what your focus is. I’m not really one for reflecting while we’re in the moment, but I’m one for pushing and challenging us to continue to be better.”

But for all the efforts the Fever have made to extend their season, for all the resilience they have shown to persevere through adversity, at a certain point, Indiana will hit a ceiling. There is too much firepower in street clothes, too much newness to navigate for the Fever to keep getting better.

Their options are running out. The cracks are starting to show as Indiana stares down a potential playoff elimination game on Sunday.

“I thought our energy was good, I thought our competitive spirit was good,” White said. “At the end of the day, you just look at the field-goal makes and the free-throw makes, and it’s a different ball game.”

En route to their 84-72 Game 3 semifinals victory, the Aces started every defensive possession essentially ignoring two Indiana players and showing a lot of bodies at Kelsey Mitchell and Aliyah Boston. When the defense collapsed on Mitchell, crowding her in the paint after already forcing her to drive to her off hand, Mitchell could make the right read and kick the ball out to a shooter on the perimeter. But when that shooter is Odyssey Sims or Shey Peddy instead of Sophie Cunningham or Chloe Bibby, the defense has won the battle.

Sims and Peddy shot 2 of 11 from the field, including 1 of 4 from 3-point range. As the two lead ballhandlers, they combined for four assists to five turnovers.

So much pressure is on Mitchell to create offense because the only other point guard who can score for herself is Caitlin Clark or potentially Aari McDonald. And both have been out with injuries.

Las Vegas could bring help toward Boston in the paint because when Boston saw a double and tried to dump off a pass to her fellow big, that player was Brianna Turner or Makayla Timpson, who can’t really make a play with the ball. Unless they can directly finish at the basket, the defense has time to rotate and reset.

When Lexie Hull got into foul trouble, the Fever didn’t have Sophie Cunningham (another sidelined Indiana guard) or McDonald to turn to for defense off the bench; they had to go with Aerial Powers, who signed with Indiana on Aug. 23, barely a month ago. Powers is hardly the most disciplined player, and that is a death knell against an experienced team like the Aces.

At the end of the third quarter, Powers received the ball with four seconds left on the shot clock as Boston started to seal her defender in the lane. She was too slow to deliver the ball to her big, and Indiana was called for an offensive three-second violation, which is almost unheard of that late in the clock.

That mistake left 3.6 seconds left in the quarter. On the final possession, Powers was guarding Jackie Young at halfcourt and shaded Young towards the wrong basket, allowing Young to break free for a lay-up on a stupendous pass from Chelsea Gray.

“Giving up the lay-up in the last three seconds, that’s probably gonna haunt Steph,” Aces coach Becky Hammon said. “Because it was more than that, it was just the momentum. It took the air out of the building.”

There isn’t much the Fever can do about most of its personnel challenges. Injuries are beyond their control. As well as replacement players have performed, there is a reason they were available later in the season to sign with the Fever.

But that doesn’t absolve Indiana’s front office entirely. The Fever gave a maximum contract to Natasha Howard this offseason and didn’t trust her defense enough to play her more than 15 minutes in Game 3. They relied on a rookie to hold her own in the second round of the playoffs and be the second line of defense against league MVP A’ja Wilson.

Indiana’s other prime free agency acquisition was DeWanna Bonner, who lasted all of nine games and is playing crunchtime minutes for a different WNBA semifinalist in Phoenix. The Fever are sitting on nearly $170,000 in dead cap from Bonner and Katie Lou Samuelson, who was bought out before the start of the season.

The final major offseason move was bringing in Cunningham, which came at the cost of the No. 8 pick in the 2025 draft plus NaLyssa Smith. Smith had fallen out of favor with the Fever but is thriving with the Aces at the expense of her former team. She singlehandedly outscored Indiana’s non-Boston frontcourt players 16 to 12 and provided the help defense the Fever were missing.

As Indiana searches for answers entering an elimination game, it is hamstrung by mistakes of its own volition in addition to the injuries. The limits of their roster may have finally caught up to the Fever.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

Indiana Fever, WNBA

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