Ahead of Wednesday night's matchup between the Connecticut Sun and Indiana Fever, Sun head coach Stephanie White praised Indiana's growth this season.
The two teams have already met three times this year, with Connecticut winning all three times, but White pointed out that the team playing today is a completely different team than the one they faced in May and June.
“For a young team that's really developing, the understanding, the timing, the pace, the coordination wasn't there early on,” White said of Indiana. “Now it's good enough.”
The Fever started the season 1-8 and seemed destined to miss the lottery, but they turned things around in mid-June, winning 11 of their final 17 games. They currently sit in the 7th seed, 2.5 games behind the Sky. If the playoffs started today, the Fever and Sun would face off.
White, the 2023 WNBA Coach of the Year, said the Fever's improvement is due to their growing chemistry and comfort with each other, especially with forward Caitlin Clark, who is averaging 8.2 assists per game, best in the league. WNBA In July, he broke the record for most assists in a single game.
“Everybody on the court understands when, where and how Caitlin Clark is going to hand them the ball, so they get there,” White said. “Kelsey Mitchell is obviously playing on a different level right now, so there's another player on the court that they have to be careful of, with the ball, without the ball, in isolation or two-man.”
Mitchell has been the league's leading scorer so far in August, averaging 26.3 points per game. Aliyah Boston has bounced back from a sluggish start to the season and is currently averaging 13.9 points and 9.2 rebounds per game. Clark has kept Mitchell and Boston on a winning streak.
“They make quicker reads, they play with more rhythm, better timing and with multiple weapons on the court,” White said.
As a result, Fever seems dangerous. In a recent episode of her podcast, she said:A little moreWNBA legend Sue Bird said the Fever are the team no one wants to see in the playoffs.
“In 2018 and 2020, the years we won, our mantra was 'pace, pace, pace, pace, pace.' Bird said“I look at Caitlin and Kelsey Mitchell and I know they're just forcing it on people. It's really hard. It makes my head spin.”
White seemed to echo that sentiment during his pre-game press conference on Wednesday night.
“They're a team that plays with a lot of confidence,” White said. “They're not scared of anybody. They just go out there and play and enjoy the game. This is a tough matchup.”
