The Indiana Fever suffered another bad loss without Caitlin Clark, losing to the Atlanta Dream by 19 points even though Rhyne Howard and Brittney Griner didn’t have great games for Atlanta. After getting two wins over the Washington Mystics and Chicago Sky, the Fever failed to replicate that success against a winning team.
After the game, frustrated fans started to question Stephanie White’s coaching. However, doing that based on this game is premature. The loss had less to do with White’s coaching and more with the fact that the Fever’s players couldn’t hit threes and lost the rebounding battle by a significant margin.
The Fever couldn’t find the bottom of the net from long range
Losing Caitlin Clark and Sophie Cunningham was a tough blow overall, but it especially threatened the Fever’s ability to space the floor. Aside from Lexie Hull, no Fever player has shot the three exceptionally well this season, but Clark and Cunningham are players opponents don’t want to leave open. With both sidelined, the Fever’s roster doesn’t feature many big threats from three. That issue was on full display against Atlanta.
As a team, the Fever only made five of its 24 attempts from long range. Sydney Colson, DeWanna Bonner, Damiris Dantas, and Aari McDonald were the only players to hit a three. Kelsey Mitchell went 0-5 from behind the arc, and Lexie Hull missed all three of her attempts.
The Dream also didn’t shoot it well from distance with a 5-22 shooting performance. However, the difference is that the Dream still shot 47 percent from the field, while the Fever only made 36.2 percent of their field goal attempts.
READ MORE: Kelsey Mitchell wins Player of the Week as Fever rolls without Caitlin Clark
Atlanta dominated the rebounding battle, grabbing 44 rebounds compared to the Fever’s 27, and the paint. Led by Brionna Jones and Allisha Gray, the Dream scored 46 points in the paint. Indiana only got 28.
When you’re going up against a team that features Brionna Jones and Brittney Griner, winning the battle in the paint will always be difficult. Indiana doesn’t have the size or frontcourt depth to compete with the two All-Star bigs on Atlanta’s roster.
The Fever’s inability to make up for their shortcomings in the paint by hitting threes and keeping the Dream off the glass sealed the deal. There is not much Stephanie White could have done about those shortcomings.
The Fever have another tough challenge coming up
After three games, it seems that Atlanta simply isn’t a great matchup for the Fever. The Liberty aren’t a good matchup for anyone and will pose an even bigger challenge to the Fever. If the Fever don’t drastically improve their shooting and rebounding against the Liberty, another tough loss may be waiting for the team.
Even if Clark and Cunningham are ready to return to the court by then, they may not give the Fever the necessary boost to defeat the reigning champions after lengthy absences.