Playing ninth game in 18 days, Indiana Fever lose intensity against Sparks: 'We gotta lock in'

Indianapolis Star

19 hours ago

INDIANAPOLIS — After holding their opponents under 60 points for two straight games, the Indiana Fever were just a step too slow against the Sparks.
And that broke the Fever's three-game winning streak, as Indiana suffered an 89-87 loss to Los Angeles (6-13). Indiana is now 0-2 against Los Angeles this season, as the Sparks left Indianapolis with an 85-75 win on June 26.
'In games like this, we just have to have a different level of focus from the start,' Fever guard Sydney Colson said. 'Especially when we know that, you know, a team has already won on our home court.'
Indiana's defensive intensity was lacking on Saturday night, especially after a stretch of multiple impressive defensive games.
The Fever (9-9) held the league-leading Lynx to 59 points, including an eight-minute stretch in the second quarter when Minnesota didn't score, for the Commissioner's Cup championship on Tuesday night. Indiana then returned to Indianapolis to hold Las Vegas to 54 points, recording a win over the Aces for the first time since 2019.
It was a needed intensity on defense, especially with Fever star Caitlin Clark out with a groin injury. Indiana still was able to find a groove in those games, turning their stifling defense into offense.
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But that defensive intensity didn't translate against the Sparks. Indiana struggled with rotations and switches, allowing Los Angeles (6-13) to run actions and make easy buckets.
'We got to be better with personnel defense, so that when, you know, a play breaks down and players start to go one-on-one, it doesn't matter what people's records are at that point, like they score on all teams in this league,' Colson said. "And we got to understand what they want to do, what's their go-to, and don't let them do that, make them do something different. Our rotations and our reads, like our trap-in, wasn't great and, yeah, we were a step slow, I think, on a lot of stuff.'
That change in defensive intensity could've been for a variety of reasons. Indiana struggled in knowing their personnel and anticipating their movements, putting them behind the ball in multiple situations.
Indiana was also on a day's rest, playing their ninth game in 18 days. That kind of stretch included a three-game West Coast road trip, an extra game in Minnesota for the Commissioner's Cup, and nine available players for five of those games because of Clark's injury and Damiris Dantas' absence for AmeriCup.
That stretch, on any team and any player, is difficult. It means less practice time, more strenuous activity and fewer opportunities to prepare for that next opponent. Still, there's ways to combat that physical fatigue.
'If there's a day where you feel like maybe you're a step slow, our anticipation has to be better, our activity has to be better,' Fever coach Stephanie White said. '... So we have to combat, if there's some physical, physical, you know, tiredness, we have to combat that with mental sharpness."
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The Fever may have been, and rightfully so, tired. But, Colson said, fatigue is not an excuse.
'We gotta lock in, whether it's fatigue, you're tired, not as focused, like we just gotta check ourselves and one another,' Colson said. 'Make sure that we're really honed in on what we're supposed to be doing, so that we can start putting full 40s together.'
Indiana is 9-9 with three games left in the five-game homestand. It's a massive opportunity for the Fever, being at home for so long, to gain some ground in the standings. And Indiana has shown improvement over this tough stretch.
That improvement is just something they'll have to show consistently.
'I think the last two games before this are more indicative of who we're becoming, the direction that we're going in,' Colson said. 'But it's not going to be perfect all the time.'