Fever offense is surging at the perfect time
Natalie Esquire and Terrika Foster-Brasby break down the Indiana Fever's offensive surge ahead of the postseason and the guard play of Caitlin Clark and Kelsey Mitchell.
Video Transcript
Welcome to the WNBA on NBC.
I am joined by the Taurica Foster-Radsby, the ultimate Leo, similar to myself.
Queens, what does the rest of your shirt say?
Oh.
Born in August, yes.
August 17th queen here, August 19th queen here.
This, this show is just full of Leo energy.
Yes, and so we understand why we may get on y'all- Yeah nerves sometimes, but guess what?
We don't care.
And in all honesty, Leos celebrate the entire month, so you're lucky we haven't laid it on thick before now, but anyway.
Seriously.
Taurica, so glad to, I'm so glad to have you back, because you haven't been with us, friend.
You have been everywhere working, covering this amazing league.
And we are at the point of the season where you're talking about, you know, awards, which we're not gonna do today, but we're also talking about the playoff picture.
Yes.
And, you know, l- sometimes we, like, don't know, like, if a team is gonna, like, get in.
And things can still change, but what I will say right now is that I think our top eight are solidified, but where they're gonna land is not, right?
And so, like, some teams are peaking right now, and one of those teams is the Indiana Fever.
Like, it's in their name.
They are hot, hot, hot right now, Taurica.
And- Absolutely you know, that three-headed monster over there, like, they're so good.
They're so good.
And they're just winning right now.
They are beating the teams that they need to.
They are securing the tiebreakers that they need to.
And they have moved into fourth place.
But- Mm-hmm I think what's really interesting about them is they now have the same number of losses as the Las Vegas Aces.
So both teams are playing tonight, not against each other, but they're playing tonight.
The Fever do own the tiebreaker over the Las Vegas Aces.
And so the Fever are actually gonna play earlier than the Aces, so when the Fever play, they, if they win, they would overtake the Aces in the standings.
Uh-huh.
But if the Aces win, the Aces will go right back to three.
But- Yep the point is, and w- we don't know what's gonna happen, but in theory, if both teams were to win out the season right now, from here on out, the Fever would overtake the Aces in the standing based- Mm-hmm on the tie, head-to-head tiebreaker.
You know?
Yeah.
The head-to-head tiebreaker.
So they have put themselves in a really, really great position.
They also won over the weekend verse the Dream, and blocked the Dream from having a tiebreaker over them, which was- Yeah huge.
So they're, they're surging right now, Taurica.
Yeah, and it's, it is definitely, I mean, you mentioned the three-headed monster, but I'm even gonna cut it a little shorter and talk about the dynamic duo between Caitlin and Kelsey.
I mean, over the month of August, they are combining for, like, 51 points a game.
Like, they are not joking out here with anyone, and I think that should make a lot of teams very scared.
Because we saw an Indiana Fever team take the Las Vegas Aces to the wire in a postseason game in 2025 without their star.
To now have that back, to now be able to surge at the right time, you know, Nat, a lot of these teams have their moments, but it really is all about when you start to peak when it comes to the postseason.
And peaking at the right time is what will propel a lot of teams.
We saw it in 2021 with the Chicago Sky.
They got hot at the right time, and it took them all the way to a championship.
We saw it last year with the Las Vegas Aces.
They got hot at the right time and didn't lose.
So this is a, a v- there is a precedent that has been set for this Indiana Fever team, and they're taking full advantage of it at this moment.
Yeah, well look, they're very potent, as we can see here.
And- Yeah you know, you mentioned Caitlin and, Kelsey Mitchell, and I still, I have to give a shout-out to Aliyah Boston, shooting- For sure oh, 40%, over 40% from three as your big, right?
Yeah.
But I mean, Caitlin right now is just been sensational.
She's getting all these double doubles, which are double doubles with points and assists.
I wanna be clear about that.
Mm-hmm.
Not that, like, any double double isn't impressive, but she's just tallying up assists, setting up her teammates.
And Kelsey Mitchell, what is it, a 19-game streak of 20-point games?
Is that what she's- Yes up to right now?
She's already beaten A'ja Wilson's single-season record.
I mean, you know, what more can you say?
As a guard, I mean, she's averaging- Yeah this is just, you know, on the season, but I mean, she's averaging 24.2 points per game.
Yeah, like, truly balling.
I think the only thing that, you know, Stephanie White wants her group to just continue to do is to get better defensively.
Like, that may be the one Achilles heel that this Fever team has going into the postseason.
And so you wanna sure that up.
You know, don't quote me, but I think they're, like, in the bottom four of, like, points allowed or something like that, or top four in po- in points allowed.
So they've just gotta get better defensively, and that is the one thing.
You know, they say defense wins championships, but it is some truth to that.
Like, you have to be able to defend at a high level the deeper you get into the postseason.
But from an offensive standpoint, this team is elite.
They're continuing to play better.
There is a reason that Kelsey Mitchell is in the MVP conversation, the way that she's played this year.
So I, I would be nervous if I have got to play the Fever in the first round.
And sure enough, that head-to-head tiebreaker over Atlanta is gonna be key, because that is something that that first round team is going to have home court advantage, and you wanna be that team to have the home court advantage, at least in the first round.
So that was an important win- Right, so they don't- for, for Indiana they don't have it, but they, they blocked Atlanta from having it, so they split that series 2-2.
Right, but what I'm saying is if I'm not mistaken, if they stay fourth- Yeah then they would get a, a, the home court a- Yeah, they would get the home court the home court advantage.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Yep.
Yeah.
No, I agree.
I agree.
But I think they have that eye on trying to take that three seed from Vegas.
They may.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.
Yeah.
And I mean, I don't, I don't, at this point, I don't even know, like, what the best match-ups are, but, like, I spoke to Caitlin Clark after that game, and I asked her, 'cause she, she was giving, you know, Atlanta a lot of praise.
And she, she mentioned the fact, like, she's like, "Look, we're not, like, watching the standings every night," but it, they- Right they understood the importance of not allowing Atlanta to get that tiebreaker over them.
But you know, she's like, "Look, all these games between us have been close."
You know?
And so- Mm-hmm they understand, and it's just, like, while I do think they, like, match up much better against the Aces, and they've seemed to, like, in more recent history have had the Aces' number, Atlanta still seems to be a very hard match-up for them.
And Caitlin attributed that to Atlanta's versatility.
And so- Yeah I think- That if, if, if, if Atlanta and, and the Fever remain in the four and the five, whichever order, I think the team that has home court is going to have the advantage in that series, just 'cause those teams have played each other pretty evenly all off season, right?
Yeah, yep.
And so we will see.
But, you know, it's crazy 'cause it's like the top offense verse one of the top defenses, right?
You know.
Yeah.
but it, it, I just Their offense has been so good, and sometimes I do agree that their defense needs to get better, but sometimes, you know, when your offense is like this, you know, since July 17th, Charica, I mean, they're averaging more than 100 points per game.
Mm-hmm.
Their field goal percentage is over 52%.
They're shooting 44% from three, and their offensive rating is 121.7.
That's crazy, Charica.
It is incredibly crazy.
The o- the offensive output has been ridiculous for this team.
But at the end of the day, you don't ever wanna put yourself in a position where you may run up against another team that is great with creating offensive output like a vases- like a Vegas, like a Vegas team, like a Minnesota.
Absolutely.
You know, you wanna be able to neutralize their offensive weapons, and that is, again, the one small flaw, well, not really small, but that is the one flaw that they have to, they have to get over that bit of a hump as they enter into.
Otherwise, I mean, y'all are gonna be blowing teams out of the water in terms of scoring.
Like, they- Yeah are gonna have to keep up with you.
And there aren't too many teams defensively that I think are gonna stop all three of y'all.
Right.
We might be able to put a pause on Aliyah.
We might be able to get in front of Caitlin.
We might be able to get in front of Kelsey.
But we are not able to stop all three weapons that you have.
And man, if you're a coach, that's the kind of, those are the kind of pieces and the kind of, of risk you'd be okay with taking.
I'm cool if you can stop Caitlin, 'cause you can't stop Kelsey and Aliyah.
Right.
Like, it's just not, so there you go.
I agree with you, about their defense.
I'm a big, like, defense wins championships person.
But also- Me too I think that's, that's why I think what Aliyah brings to this team is often so underrated.
Like, she, her defensive presence, what she's able to do down low- Mm-hmm I think honestly, obviously she's one of their, their main stars, but also I think is sometimes what makes her, like, an x-factor, which is weird- Mm-hmm 'cause I don't usually think of a star as an x-factor.
But she really brings it for them on both ends, offensively and defensively.
Um- Agree and it's real- it's really important, so, um- That is also what would make a match up with them against Atlanta if they remained four and five.
Because keep in mind, for those who may not remember, but they changed the rules last year about the best of threes.
So it's not one, not two and one anymore, it's one, one, one.
So yeah, they would have home court advantage, but game one would be on the win- on the, on the four, and game two would be at the five.
And that could be very interesting, especially given that Atlanta plays pretty decently at home.
They have an elite rebounding, and that gives them a different advantage.
So I, I think you're right.
Indiana wants to slide up to that three.
They don't really wanna be in a four or five with Atlanta.
I, I agree.
I agree
