Fever must do this one thing against Mystics to avoid back to back losses
The Indiana Fever are a fast team - when healthy. Caitlin Clark, who pushes the floor for them and runs point for everyone on the court with her, is able to see things pretty far down the floor as opposed to shrinking it.
Without Clark, the Fever struggled mightily to not only get any transition buckets easily, but also to stop the Washington Mystics from getting those points easily - and, that was in major part due to Kiki Iriafen managing to get down the floor and to her spots in the post with basically no resistance from the Fever's defense.
In order to slow Washington down, especially since they'll still be without Clark and potentially without guards in Sophie Cunningham and Sydney Colson, the team has to hone in on Iriafen defensively to keep the Mystics offense from getting too many easy looks down low. It's going to fall on the shoulders of Aliyah Boston and Natasha Howard to get that job done.
Fever must contain Iriafen to win after so many injuries
With the potential of Cunningham and Colson missing time, the Fever will have to rest on their defensive laurels in order to win their game against the Mystics. Containing Iriafen is not an easy task - she's averaging a double double, and seems intent on making every veteran who guards her pay for even thinking they could.
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In their last contest against each other, Indiana gave up 48 points in the paint to Washington compared to just scoring 32 against them. Going back to the fast break opportunities handed to the Mystics, they also had 11 fast break points to the Fever's zero in that game. It was an indictment on the team's ability to get Boston involved without Clark on the floor, and their inability to get Boston going defensively as a result.
If she's not involved in the game in terms of scoring, it's hard to see her motivated to then go lock down an opposing team's best frontcourt personnel. Indiana has to be a lot more intentional about stopping Iriafen their next game.
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