The Indiana Fever wanted to make things hard on the Las Vegas Aces in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series. Their hope was to play disruptive defense, force missed shots, then grab rebounds and use the open floor to their advantage.
Basically none of that happened. The Aces scored 102 points in Game 1, a number they reached just eight times in the regular season. They went 8-0 in those games. The Fever, meanwhile, went 2-9 when allowing at least that many points.
Postgame, star guard Caitlin Clark was asked to grade Indiana’s ability to make things hard on Las Vegas defensively.
“An F,” she said calmly before looking to her side toward center Aliyah Boston and head coach Stephanie White.
“28 points off turnovers and 17 points from the free throw line. Those are easy buckets,” White said of her team’s defense. “So we didn’t do our job.”
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Defense is, and always has been, what will define the Fever’s ceiling this postseason. That’s been clear since opening night. The roster is naturally gifted on offense and led the WNBA in points per 100 possessions. They beat every team in the league at least once this season because they can put up points in a hurry.
They also can’t stop anybody. Indiana had the worst defensive rating in the regular season among the eight postseason clubs and frequently lost games because of their inability to get stops. They needed a team meeting less than one month into the season to regroup after a miserable night of defense in Portland.
The detailed nature of the playoffs can sometimes help teams improve on their weaknesses. For the Fever in Game 1 of their first-round series, that was not the case. If anything, the hyper-focused nature of the playoffs burned them. The Aces picked at the holes in their defense and kept scoring.
“We were in rotation a lot,” White said of her team defensively.
Las Vegas scored 62 points in the first two quarters, matching the highest point total the Fever allowed in any half during the regular season. They shot almost 65% from the field in that half — Aces stars A’ja Wilson (nine), Chelsea Gray (four), and Jackie Young (four) combined to make 17 shots across by the break, equalling the Fever’s total as a team.
Those three are excellent. Yet in the regular season, the Fever did a good job of keeping them in check and making them work for their points. In Game 1, that didn’t happen.
Indiana’s defense felt more like the fatal flaw in what ended up being a 17-point Game 1 loss. But their offense was subpar, too. In some ways, their scoring attack not meeting its usual standard hurt their defense.
“I think a lot of it was our turnovers… And a lot of them came in that second quarter,” White said when asked about her team’s poor second quarter. The Aces scored 35 points in that frame and broke the game open. “And then when you get some easy ones, then the basket looks really big. And then they started hitting some 3s… They got some easy ones.”
Some of the turnovers were disconnection turnovers — a missed expected cut or a misguided pass during an incomplete sequence. Those were the most obvious signs that the Fever’s offense wasn’t firing on all cylinders.
Those made life easy for Las Vegas, and the defense-offense connection extends beyond just those turnovers. “We want to play in transition, and obviously when they score 102 points it’s hard for us to kind of get that part of it going,” Clark said. “I think they’re good defenders, but at the same time, we made it hard on ourselves too.”
Those feedback loops doomed the Fever all night. They couldn’t stop the Aces, so they had to take the ball out of the net. That made scoring more challenging for the Fever, and in turn the Aces got more stops. Vegas was in the open floor after those defensive successes, which made it easier to score. And that cycle continued.
The Aces finished the game shooting 59.4% from the field. The Fever didn’t even reach 45%. A 15% difference is impossible to overcome and tells a story about the Fever’s inadequacy on both ends.
“I thought our actions were sloppy. I thought what we were running just wasn’t great. And just nobody got an easy or open look,” Clark said.
Indiana finished the game with 85 points. That’s below their typical range. Yet in the regular season — a sample that is irrelevant to the playoffs but a helpful statistical measure — 85 would have been enough points for the Fever to beat the Aces in two of their three meetings in the regular season.
That’s why the Fever feel as if their defense was what cost them the game. It felt that way, too. Without getting stops, it was difficult for the Fever to go on a row or earn even a second of momentum. Young hit a three-point shot with 2:57 on the clock until halftime. The Fever never pulled within single digits again.
While the Fever’s core issue in this game was getting stops, they could benefit from the same feedback loops that doomed them in Game 1. More effective scoring would help them set their defense more often, and the Fever know how to score. They need to lean into their best offensive units and sets in Game 2 to keep their season alive.
They also need better answers for A’ja Wilson, who lit them up for 38 points (tied her playoff career high) and 16 rebounds. Boston handled that matchup well in the regular season but needed more help in this game.
Wilson alone made as many shots in the second half of this game (six) as the Fever’s big three of Clark, Boston, and Kelsey Mitchell did combined. If the MVP favorite retains that level in Game 2, then Indiana will be in trouble.
“Just closing back out a little bit quicker and trying to get in her space,” Boston said of defending Wilson. “[If] she hits tough shots, she hits tough shots. And you take it out of the net and you go down.”
There was little to like for the Fever in Game 1, and it continued a choppy run of play for the team. Their offense felt stagnant and their defense was weak. They’ll need to adjust by Tuesday, but the best adjustment the Fever can make is the “play better,” adjustment. Their pace was solid, they just couldn’t finish plays or get stops.
“There’s always micro adjustments,” White said postgame before rattling off a few. “We need to prioritize some things that we did on the defensive end of the floor. But we also need to prioritize offense because I do feel like Vegas is a great offensive team. They’re going to make tough shots. And some of the ones they made early were tough shots. And there’s no defense for 28 points off of turnovers. So we’ve got to be better screen setters. Our timing and our pace, because they’re going to force us to play in the half court, has to be better.”
Mitchell, Clark, and Boston combined to shoot 17/45, and even that’s with Boston having an efficient game. If the Fever’s star backcourt that carried them often this season can’t get going, they’ll have trouble in this postseason.
There’s a lot for the Fever to clean up in Game 2. But it all starts with defense. If Indiana can’t get stops, their season may be over soon.
