Indiana Fever cleaning up mistakes as Las Vegas Aces present mini playoff test

By this point last season the team had been eliminated from postseason contention for about two weeks and had locked up the top lottery odds in the 2024 WNBA Draft. They still played focused basketball down the stretch, but had little to actually play for.

The scene is much different now. Indiana is playoff bound after pulling off an eight year rebuild in just two seasons. They’re playing for seeding now as they are locked in to either the sixth or seventh seed with a few games to go. Instead of looking forward to the end of the season, the Fever are dialed in on improving.

“I had someone tell me today, ‘we don’t have anything to prove, we just have to improve.’ I appreciated that advice,” head coach Christie Sides said after a victory over the Los Angeles Sparks earlier this month. “We’ve got to keep growing. We’ve got a lot of growing that we can keep doing.”

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The top Fever improvement this season is clutch play. Last year, it was one of the team’s biggest issues. In close games, they were a mess. They finished the 2023 campaign with 16 defeats in clutch games, the most in the league. Their defense was awful when games were tight.

This year, Indiana is facing the opposite reality. They have 15 wins in clutch situations — the most in the NBA — and have a top four defense in those moments. It has flipped the fortunes of the team from last season to this year just as much as anything.

“Execution,” center Aliyah Boston said of what the team is doing better in crunch time. “Execution is a big part, especially when you’re going up against great teams … we trust each other.”

General manager Lin Dunn told The Next last season that she expected her team to be better in the clutch going forward. She was right. She also stressed, both in that conversation and many other public comments with media members, her desire to see improvement every day — during practices, from week to week, year to year, all of it.

This year, the whole franchise has seen it. Even beyond clutch play, they have improved in other ways. They’re a much better shooting team for example. Their 3-point volume went from 10th per game in 2023 to fifth this year, and that is paired with better accuracy (34% to 35% shooting) from deep, per Basketball Reference.

The Indiana Fever are currently at fourth in rebounds per game, up from seventh last year. They’ve climbed from 11th to seventh in assists per game and have gone from eighth to fourth in true shooting percentage. So they have more possessions, move the ball better and are more efficient finishing plays.

That’s a pretty good recipe, and it has the Fever heading into the playoffs riding a high. Several players have been clicking since the Olympic break, and they can beat almost anyone right now.

No matter how much the Indiana Fever improve, there is something they don’t have and can’t get: playoff experience. On the roster only four players have appeared in the postseason — forward Katie Lou Samuelson, forward Damiris Dantas, center Temi Fagbenle and guard Erica Wheeler. Fittingly, Wheeler’s last playoff game was for the Fever back in 2016, and Fagbenle was a part of a championship franchise with the Minnesota Lynx in 2017.

The other eight players on the roster will get their first taste of playoff experience this year. Fortunately for the team, they are getting the closest thing they can get to a postseason setting right now.

This week, Indiana hosted the Las Vegas Aces on Wednesday. Friday, they’ll do it again. That mini series is similar to a playoff setting. The Fever will get to watch film, adjust and see what they need to do better against one of the league’s best teams.

“We’re kind of almost viewing it as a mini playoff series,” rookie guard Caitlin Clark said. “I think it’s a good opportunity for us to see where we’re at.”

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The Aces are the two-time reigning WNBA champions. They are the perfect test of a team’s ability to both play basketball and adjust to challenges. The Indiana Fever couldn’t have asked for a better trial to prepare for postseason play. Las Vegas is the only team the Fever hasn’t defeated this season. All three games in the Indiana-Vegas series this year have been double-digits victories for the reigning champs. The Fever have to be better, and they’ll have a playoff-type setup to look at their tape and improve.

“We’re going to make some adjustments,” Sides said. ” … Once we get that [defense] back, and then get some stops and get out and run in transition, we should get back to what it’s been looking like.”

Another Las Vegas matchup awaits the Indiana Fever to begin the weekend. Then, the Fever will be all but ready for the postseason.