Indiana Fever 2024

Post #381 » by **Ice Man** » Sun Jun 30, 2024 9:12 pm

Boston has to make a faster decision there when she gets doubled in the paint.

MrDollarBills · Post #382 » by **MrDollarBills** » Sun Jun 30, 2024 9:15 pm

What a game!!!

Post #383 » by **Ice Man** » Sun Jun 30, 2024 9:29 pm

MrDollarBills wrote:What a game!!!

Yep, I'm enjoying the WNBA. Am going to my first game on Tuesday night.

MrDollarBills · Post #384 » by **MrDollarBills** » Sun Jun 30, 2024 9:30 pm

Great win by the Fever. This game was a classic from start to finish.

MrDollarBills · Post #385 » by **MrDollarBills** » Sun Jun 30, 2024 9:31 pm

Ice Man wrote:
MrDollarBills wrote:What a game!!!

Yep, I'm enjoying the WNBA. Am going to my first game on Tuesday night.

Nice which game?

jc23 · Post #386 » by **jc23** » Sun Jun 30, 2024 11:36 pm

Brittney Griner made every player on the court look tiny.

Fever are best when they play uptempo. Thats when their scoring outbursts tend to happen. You missed out on a career highlight by air-balling that 3 Caitlin.

rmontro · Post #387 » by **rmontro** » Mon Jul 1, 2024 2:38 am

First win against a team with a winning record. It's almost hard to believe the Fever have eight wins, not sure where they all came from. And they've climbed back up into a playoff position if the season ended today. Next two games are sure losses though - but hey, that's why you play the games.

I know Mitchell has her flaws, but I still like her.

MrDollarBills · Post #388 » by **MrDollarBills** » Mon Jul 1, 2024 11:21 am

jc23 wrote:Brittney Griner made every player on the court look tiny.

Fever are best when they play uptempo. Thats when their scoring outbursts tend to happen. You missed out on a career highlight by air-balling that 3 Caitlin.

BG was punishing the Fever. The look on AB's face when she got ragdolled by her was hilarious I'm sorry :lol:

And yeah...the way she made Allen drop to her knees, oh my god

MrDollarBills · Post #389 » by **MrDollarBills** » Mon Jul 1, 2024 11:22 am

Watch on YouTube

Clark had some sick passes yesterday. I wish I could watch this game again that's how much fun it was

Post #390 » by **Ice Man** » Mon Jul 1, 2024 1:00 pm

MrDollarBills wrote:Nice which game?

Liberty - Lynx. Revenge game!

Post #391 » by **Ice Man** » Mon Jul 1, 2024 1:05 pm

jc23 wrote:Fever are best when they play uptempo. Thats when their scoring outbursts tend to happen. You missed out on a career highlight by air-balling that 3 Caitlin.

CC is devastating in the open court. Sure, she's good in the half court too, but she's not "oh my goodness" special. Indy's task is to run, run, and run. One of the Indy players talked about that in the post-game presser -- or maybe it was Coach Sides. At any rate, the point was "We knew that when we were down big the only way to win the game was to run. Even after made baskets. Run."

That is where the Fever are heading. A team full of runners, defenders, and 3-point shooters. With OK, Boston in the center. But even she needs to run more (and she is).

rmontro · Post #392 » by **rmontro** » Mon Jul 1, 2024 1:45 pm

Ice Man wrote:Indy's task is to run, run, and run. One of the Indy players talked about that in the post-game presser -- or maybe it was Coach Sides. At any rate, the point was "We knew that when we were down big the only way to win the game was to run. Even after made baskets. Run."

That is where the Fever are heading. A team full of runners, defenders, and 3-point shooters. With OK, Boston in the center. But even she needs to run more (and she is).

I didn't watch last year, but from what I understand that wasn't the case last year. Apparently Sides decided at some point during the offseason the Fever were going to be a running team. I don't know if that was a response to getting Clark, or just something she dreamed up?

Post #393 » by **Ice Man** » Mon Jul 1, 2024 1:55 pm

rmontro wrote: Apparently Sides decided at some point during the offseason the Fever were going to be a running team. I don't know if that was a response to getting Clark, or just something she dreamed up?

Surely a response to getting Clark. When your entire franchise is built around a Showtime point guard, you don't walk up the court.

MrDollarBills · Post #394 » by **MrDollarBills** » Mon Jul 1, 2024 2:07 pm

Ice Man wrote:
MrDollarBills wrote:Nice which game?

Liberty - Lynx. Revenge game!

That game is gonna be nuts. Enjoy!!

jc23 · Post #395 » by **jc23** » Tue Jul 2, 2024 1:49 pm

another key to the Fever winning is how they handle the Blitz. CC has the ball a ton and gets blitzed more then any other player i have seen thus far. Early on it resulted in turnovers; now it often results in a play that goes nowhere. Whatever choice is made by the player that gets the ball off the Blitz it has to be a choice that is made before the defense can recover.

Post #396 » by **Ice Man** » Tue Jul 2, 2024 2:22 pm

jc23 wrote:Early on it resulted in turnovers; now it often results in a play that goes nowhere.

Correct on both accounts. At the start of the season the Fever gave CC no outlets when she was blitzed on the (very) high P&R. Now Boston is releasing to the free throw line, and the wings are giving her passing angles on the perimeter. So, that's progress. But the ball still moves too slowly, sometimes from Clark and pretty much always from the pass's recipient. Beating the blitz means playing bang, bang, bang! But that's hard for the Fever to do.

ellobo · Post #397 » by **ellobo** » Tue Jul 2, 2024 7:07 pm

Ice Man wrote:
jc23 wrote:Early on it resulted in turnovers; now it often results in a play that goes nowhere.

Correct on both accounts. At the start of the season the Fever gave CC no outlets when she was blitzed on the (very) high P&R. Now Boston is releasing to the free throw line, and the wings are giving her passing angles on the perimeter. So, that's progress. But the ball still moves too slowly, sometimes from Clark and pretty much always from the pass's recipient. Beating the blitz means playing bang, bang, bang! But that's hard for the Fever to do.

Kevin Pelton just came out with an article looking at Clark's and the Fever's performance this year. One interesting tidbit was that the Fever's points per possession when Clark is blitzed is actually higher than their points per possession when Clark is not blitzed, and teams have backed off on the blitzing as the season has gone on.

A few other tidbits that stood out to me:
--Clark is second in the league to Jackie Young in points per possession on pick and roll plays where either the ballhandler or the screen setter shoots, goes to the free throw line or turns over the ball, or a Clark pass sets up an immediate shot by another teammate. That particularly stood out because it includes turnovers on those plays. So even with whatever turnovers Clark commits on those plays, the overall efficiency is still very high.

--Despite Clark's high number of turnovers, Indiana's team turnover rate is down from last year (this is based on tracking data, not box score stats).

--How little Aliyah Boston has played pick and roll previously in her career. It's not necessarily that she isn't a good pick and roll player, but it's not a role (almost wrote "roll") she has a lot of experience with. She still drifts laterally into the free throw line area instead of rolling hard toward the rim, and when she catches it there, she often seems uncertain what to do (pass, shoot, or attack off the dribble), and often passes out when she has an opportunity to shoot or attack, and without doing anything to threaten the defense before passing.

--The off-ball catch and shoot numbers didn't surprise me (in the last 9 games, 45% of her three point attempts were catch and shoot, and she hit 50% of them) because I noticed it just watching games (overall for the season 60.7% of her three point makes have been assisted). And these are not standing in the corner threes, but shots off movement. So having her play both on and off-ball is very effective and off-ball movement is something she can continue to develop (similar to Steph Curry).

https://www.espn.com/wnba/story/_/id/40471104/wnba-2024-caitlin-clark-indiana-fever-rookie-midseason-stats-analysis

rmontro · Post #398 » by **rmontro** » Wed Jul 3, 2024 3:31 am

Re: The Fever/Aces game tonight:
The game probably would have been a lot closer if it weren't for Clark and Samuelson being ice cold shooting. Among other things. The Aces defense had something to do with that, I'm sure. Oh well, they hung with them for most of the game, sort of.

Ghetto Gospel · Post #399 » by **Ghetto Gospel** » Wed Jul 3, 2024 3:45 am

rmontro wrote:Re: The Fever/Aces game tonight:
The game probably would have been a lot closer if it weren't for Clark and Samuelson being ice cold shooting. Among other things. The Aces defense had something to do with that, I'm sure. Oh well, they hung with them for most of the game, sort of.

the aces just forced clark to pass the ball. she's going to make mistakes and turn the ball over and it forces the others to make great decisions with the ball. coupled that with the aces having really good team defense and they're forcing the fever to make multiple correct passes/plays in every possession and that just isn't going to happen

rmontro · Post #400 » by **rmontro** » Wed Jul 3, 2024 4:01 am

Ghetto Gospel wrote:
rmontro wrote:Re: The Fever/Aces game tonight:the aces just forced clark to pass the ball. she's going to make mistakes and turn the ball over and it forces the others to make great decisions with the ball.

Well, that is what happened. I thought Clark was not at all as sharp as she usually is with her passing though. I just checked the box score, and I was surprised she only had six turnovers. But as you say, even when she delivered the ball, seemed like the receivers didn't know what to do with it. Got to credit the Aces defense.

I don't know, even though I never thought the Fever was a threat to win, it didn't really get away from them until that last quarter. Maybe they just ran out of gas.