INDIANAPOLIS \u2014 Stephanie White doesn\u2019t want to dwell too much on what the Indiana Fever have accomplished thus far.<\/p>\n
The outside world has celebrated the Fever\u2019s 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. However, White, the Fever coach, wants to build a foundation in Indiana that lasts long beyond this postseason.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re striving for so much more,\u201d White said. \u201cEvery time you have an opportunity to go on the floor and put yourself in position to win, that\u2019s what your focus is. I\u2019m not really one for reflecting while we\u2019re in the moment, but I\u2019m one for pushing and challenging us to continue to be better.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Their options are running out. The cracks are starting to show as Indiana stares down a potential playoff elimination game on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought our energy was good, I thought our competitive spirit was good,\u201d White said. \u201cAt the end of the day, you just look at the field-goal makes and the free-throw makes, and it\u2019s a different ball game.\u201d<\/p>\n
En route to their 84-72 Game 3 semifinals victory<\/a>, 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. However, when that shooter is Odyssey Sims or Shey Peddy instead of Sophie Cunningham or Chloe Bibby, the defense has won the battle.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019t really make a play with the ball. Unless they can directly finish at the basket, the defense has time to rotate and reset.<\/p>\n When Lexie Hull got into foul trouble, the Fever didn\u2019t have 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n That mistake left 3.6 seconds left in the quarter. On the final possession, Powers was guarding Jackie Young at half court and shaded Young toward the wrong basket, allowing Young to break free for a lay-up on a stupendous pass from Chelsea Gray.<\/p>\n What a pass from Chelsea Gray to Jackie Young<\/p>\n [image or embed]<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Steve Jones Jr (@stevejones20.bsky.social<\/a>) September 26, 2025 at 8:10 PM<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u201cGiving up the layup in the last three seconds, that\u2019s probably gonna haunt Steph,\u201d Aces coach Becky Hammon said. \u201cBecause it was more than that, it was just the momentum. It took the air out of the building.\u201d<\/p>\n There isn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n However, that doesn\u2019t absolve Indiana\u2019s front office entirely. The Fever gave a maximum contract to Natasha Howard this offseason and didn\u2019t 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\u2019ja Wilson.<\/p>\n Indiana\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s non-Boston frontcourt players 16-12 and provided the help defense the Fever were missing.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n (Photo of Kelsey Mitchell: Adam Hagy \/ NBAE via Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INDIANAPOLIS \u2014 Stephanie White doesn\u2019t want to dwell too much on what the Indiana Fever have accomplished thus…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":260588,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[234,62,67,132,68,232],"class_list":{"0":"post-260587","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-indiana-fever","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us","13":"tag-wnba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115280413089722454","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n